By DANA SMITH
Tribune Staff Reporter
dsmith@tribunemedia.net
MORE than eight companies have submitted bids in response to the government’s request for proposal concerning the privatisation of BEC and a few are still pending, Environment and Housing Minister Kenred Dorsett revealed yesterday.
He will be reviewing those proposals this Friday, the deadline, he said, before the next step in the RFP process where “qualified” bidders will be asked to submit a “detailed commercial proposal”.
The minister was addressing the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce at a midday luncheon at the British Colonial Hilton hotel, giving a speech on the government’s energy reform plans.
“With respect to the RFP process, we are pleased with the response to the RFP,” Mr Dorsett said. “Based on the information we have to date, we see a number of quality companies and consortia that have registered, and we look forward to receiving technical bid submissions by September 13.
“We expect to move into a second stage of the bidding process around October 1, inviting qualified bidders to undertake detailed due diligence and submit detailed commercial proposals. Qualified bidders will be those which we believe are technically qualified and which propose an approach that we believe is executable and makes sense for the Bahamas.”
The evaluation of the proposals in the first instance, Mr Dorsett said, will be made by the government’s advisors who will then make recommendations to the government and the government’s evaluation committee.
Those advisors include KPMG Advisory Services – “one of the largest” accounting and advisory firms; DNV Kema – “one of the leading” energy, technical, and business consultants; and Hogan Lovells – “one of the largest energy industry legal practices in the world,” Mr Dorsett said.
The minister told the press he could not give any details on the bids as he has not yet seen any of the proposals made to date and wants to ensure the transparency of the process.
“So as of Friday we will know who many persons have registered and who will be moving ahead with this RFP process and we’ll then be able to speak to it in greater detail in terms of the companies that have actually registered and the players who we have in the process,” he said.
Mr Dorsett added that the last time he had a discussion with KPMG, more than eight companies had registered and “there were a few that they said were pending.”
He added: “The 13th is only a short way away, so we’ll find out what the final count is on that date... To ensure that the process is transparent, I’ve really tried to stay away as much as possible.”
Yet Mr Dorsett also noted, “Some of the companies are companies that are familiar to me and I would assume that they still have Bahamian equity partners in them” – when asked if any of those registered companies were Bahamian.
“What we hope to achieve is that, by the end of the year, if we have come to some conclusion and agreement with the way forward and we’re satisfied with the proposals before the government and if they make sense then we will be able to bring certain recommendations,” he said.
“Our time-line for concluding this RFP process is the end of December, which if we are satisfied with what’s before us, will then enable us to begin the discussions with that service provider in the first quarter of 2014 to ensure that they’ll be able to take over by mid 2014.”
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