The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

PRIVATE sector offers to take over New Providence’s landfill will be “unfettered”, a Cabinet minister yesterday saying the bidding process was expected to launch this December.

Romauld Ferreira, minister of the environment, confirmed that the Government wants to exit the landfill management business and hand the task to the private sector, telling the business community yesterday that there would be no restrictions imposed on the technical nature of bids.

Mr Ferreira, who was addressing a Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) “Meet the Minister” breakfast, affirmed: “We have to get this right”.

He said his ministry had finished its work on the landfill management tender, with the document now awaiting approval from the Attorney General’s Office. Mr Ferreira confirmed that December has been set as the deadline to issue the tender, receive proposals and have them vetted.

“Government is interested in getting out of the landfill management business,” the Minister said. “We want to hand that to the private sector. We are of the view that the private sector can run it better.

“The landfill is actually a national asset and we want to have a group come in and treat it as such. The whole process will be transparent. We have had a lot of interest from persons in and outside the country. We have to get this right. We have to get the right blend of public-private participation.”

Mr Ferreira said the Minnis administration was seeking to “change the reputation of the landfill”. “The political will is there. I am very committed to resolving this issue,” he added.

The Minnis administration, upon taking office after the May 10 general election, cancelled the landfill tender process initiated by the former Christie administration just weeks before it was voted out.

That RFP attracted two bids, one of which was from the 10-strong Bahamian consortium, Waste Resources Development Group (WRDG), and its financial partner, Providence Advisors. Respondents had been given less than two weeks to submit a proposal, but representatives of the former government suggested its successor was making a mistake in ‘reinventing the wheel’, sproposal. You are completely unfettered in your own creativity as to what you want to do. If you can justify that we don’t need a landfill at Gladstone Road, but we can put it all in one place and ship it out fine.”