90% of RDA’s total $23M in contracts awarded to locals
Local contractors have managed to secure roughly 129 of the 144 contracts which have been awarded by the Recovery & Development Agency (RDA).
The combined total of these contracts values more than $20 million.
This is according to statistics provided by the RDA’s Director of the Programme Strategy Department, Dr Neil Smith who made the disclosure during the handing over ceremony of the North Sound Administration Building on Tuesday.
“We have now total commitments of $23.86 million. Of that $23.86 million, $1.2 million is international, local is $21.4 million, and regional with our Caribbean neighbours is $1.2 million as well. Out of that, of all the contracts the RDA has given out — some 144 in all — 90 percent of those were given to local contractors,” Dr Smith stated.
Would’ve been unfair not to award local contracts
In justifying the high percentage for awarding contracts to locals, Premier Fahie said he believes a decision to prioritize non-locals for the jobs would not have been beneficial to the territory.
“It would’ve been unfair to the people of the Virgin Islands to have to pay back a $65 million loan and have other contractors come from around the world and be awarded these contracts, and the money doesn’t circulate through the local economy and therefore we would have contributed to an even greater social problem,” the Premier explained.
“I want to say that is one of the areas that your government ensured that more local contractors have an opportunity. We could not decide who would get it but we made sure that somebody out of the Virgin Islands would get it,” he added.
All contracts awarded in a transparent and accountable manner
In the meantime, Fahie who is also the Minister of Finance, said the procedure of selecting contractors for the respective projects was transparently done and assured that none of the projects were just handed to any of the successful recipients.
“Sometimes you know you walk around this small place and hear things. That’s why it’s always good to prove them before you move forward. But there was absolutely no contractor that was given these projects. They were sent out in a transparent process through the RDA for bidding and the contractors got their technical people together and they sent in their bids and then the transparent process of opening the bids and deciding who would be awarded the bids were done and that is how the contractors were selected,” Premier Fahie said.
He added: “So some contractors bid on more than one project and were able to be successful on it, but it isn’t that anyone gave them the project or was giving one contractor two projects or three projects as being purported by some. It was transparently done. It is accountable and we must commend all those involved.”
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After Financial mismanagement through you under the ministry of Finance tell me how you get back handling Governmental money affairs? Once again BIAS.
You make them lessen my pay and it was never put back in place. Hope this Time around the COL goes with your freedom. You all don’t know when to stop. Keep it up Neil Smith
And the Premier is supporting you all the time.
You should be ashamed to go to the media.
Did you already forget about BVI Airways?
Fahie, so first off you don’t like or want the RDA and do what you can to have it closed down and now you want to take credit for it? Do you not think we the people can see what you’re doing?
You miss the point completely and I misclicked like on your comment. The rda was headed by non locals with the wrong leadership that money could have all went to international contractors
That’s not how it works. Unlike the BVI mentality of ‘us against the world’, the rest of the world do not position themselves as ‘us against the BVI’. The RDA was setup to minimise political interference and give best value for money to the BVI TAXPAYER. Fahie did not like this becaue it means you cant hand out contracts for political capital.
one of the head have a construction company rat and mice minding the cheese and corn.
Something is wrong with that figure..its very very low, minimal, small…Have to wonder How much other none local companies got and what interest board members have in these companies doing RDA contracts..
It will be interesting to see how these works hold up; better than usual we have to hope.
So all spent …. where
It’s sad to see that we have to express ourselves anonymously.
We should not be worried about where the contractors are, but if they are doing a good job.
What would’ve been unfair to the people of the Virgin Islands to have to pay for the repairs and the repair would be “destroyed” the day after?
Lets us see a COMPLETE LIST of each contract and who did the job and how much. After all it’s our money