HDC denies claims of payment to Rose Capital Investment Ltd
The Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has refuted claims made by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal on Sunday, that the HDC’s chairman Noel Garcia signed contracts and issued payments to Rose Capital Investment Limited in the sum of $4.8 million, an alleged increase from $3.7 million.
Dr Moonilal purported that the money was used to pay for the construction of box drains and retaining walls at the Gasparillo Housing Development and that the document appeared to be a Government cheque issued by the HDC, and further speculated that the HDC has been giving out contracts for Edinburgh Towers without proper procurement procedure.
Dr Moonilal also called on the Managing Director of the HDC, Jayselle McFarlane, to confirm whether or not the chairman signs contracts at the HDC.
The HDC issued a statement on Monday saying, “Effective February 11, 2022, and as part of the HDC’s digital transformation thrust to execute the Government’s mandate to promote the ease of doing business, the HDC converted all of its payments to online options thereby removing the need to print cheques as a means of remitting payments to its contractors and suppliers.”
It added, “To ensure the effectiveness of this process, the HDC undertook a painstaking exercise whereby all suppliers were asked to provide their banking information to complete transactions with the HDC. Therefore, the cheque Dr Moonilal presented at the press conference did not originate from the HDC but, by his admission, appears to be a Government cheque.”
The HDC said its procurement practices comply with the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act of 2015 (as amended) as well as the Regulations Handbooks and Guidelines of the Office of Procurement Regulation.
The HDC said it takes offence to the allegations of misconduct of public funds.
“Rose Capital Investment Ltd is not a company with which the HDC conducted business. A search of the HDC’s contractor database has not provided this company as having conducted any business with the HDC for the works identified. At this juncture, it will be remiss of the HDC not to remind Dr Moonilal and the public that any contractor can register in the Office of Procurement Regulation’s (OPR) Depository for Lines of Business that may appear contrary to the company’s name.”
The HDC added that it cannot reject bids if a contractor has satisfied all the requirements of a solicitation document inclusive of providing evidence of work experience and references.
“However, insofar as Rose Capital Investment Ltd, the HDC has not conducted any business to date. The award and signing of contracts after the proper tender process, including that of the standstill process, is only for the remit of the Managing Director,” it added.
“As such, our Chairman Noel Garcia does not sign contracts to contractors at any time.
“The claims made should have, at minimum, recognised that the Government cheque shown cannot be confused with that of the HDC and that the originator of the cheque is the awarder of the contract.
Notwithstanding, upon examination of the letter from which the award was made, the document is fake and was not printed on an official HDC letterhead,” the HDC said.
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