Gumbs: Garbage tender failed because of "complete accident" of those who tendered

GREAT BAY--Minister of VROMI Patrice Gumbs re-iterated to Parliament on Friday that every company that submitted a bid for St. Maarten’s new garbage collection contracts got the tender process wrong, maintaining that the collapse of the bidding exercise was due to failures by the bidders and not by government.

The failed tender process has become a major point of controversy, with Gumbs insisting that the fault lies with the bidders while critics continue to question how all submissions in such an important procurement exercise could have been disqualified.

According to the minister, 17 bids were received for the solid waste tender. He said the first 11 were excluded during the evaluation phase because they failed to follow the required procedures, while the remaining six were also disqualified because their submissions did not satisfy the terms of reference set out in the tender documents.

That meant, according to Gumbs, that every single bid was knocked out of consideration. In Parliament on Friday, Gumbs described the tender failure as “a complete accident of the people who tendered” and said the issue arose solely because the companies did not follow procedure and failed to properly comply with the tender requirements.

Gumbs also sought to distance the current administration from blame, telling Parliament that the roots of the garbage issue long predate his tenure and are documented in the Ombudsman’s report. He said the report describes interference by the cabinet of a former minister, including the disqualification of a bidder who was later personally reinserted into the process by the former minister’s cabinet.

The minister said garbage did not become a problem under his watch and pointed out that the condition of garbage collection had already become a major campaign issue by the January 2024 election. He said that when he entered office in June 2024, he found no records of complaints, no reports, and no useful information on garbage coordination that could help guide the ministry’s decisions. In his telling, this meant that four years of garbage contracts had been managed without the data and documentation needed to properly assess performance or determine the best way forward.

Gumbs said that after taking office he met with all the haulers and held four to five meetings over the course of his first year to address the same concerns now being debated in Parliament. He said those meetings were aimed at supporting contractors where possible while also responding to complaints from the public.

He also noted that when the ministry tried to build a case to dismiss one vendor, the matter ended up in court, where he said the ministry’s grounds were found to be fair. That, he suggested, showed that the ministry had been taking steps to deal with the inherited problems in the garbage system.

The minister had previously said legal advice was sought as soon as the problems in the tender process were identified, but that discrepancies in the information used in the bidding exercise meant the submitted bids could not be fairly or properly considered. As a result, he said, the solid waste contracts now have to be retendered.

He also disclosed earlier that a third party has been hired to review how the initial tender process failed. However, few public details have so far been given about the scope of that review, what exactly it is expected to determine, or when its findings might be made public.

In the meantime, Gumbs said the government is working to put a three-month interim arrangement in place to ensure continuity of service while the new tender process is prepared. He has not yet explained in detail what that interim arrangement will look like for garbage collection.

On district cleaning, which is being treated as a separate pending tender, the minister said government has decided to restructure the scope of work in an effort to improve efficiency. That process, too, will be supported by a three-month interim arrangement. According to earlier statements from the minister, district cleaning during the interim period will be managed by the contracting team using government rates and only with companies properly registered as cleaning companies. Government is expected to rely on contractors it has worked with before, along with current district cleaners.

Gumbs also said the first month of the interim district cleaning arrangement will focus on main roads, public beaches, cemeteries, and public schools.

The minister further rejected suggestions that the tender collapse was caused by a failure on the government side or by the absence of an approved 2026 national budget. He said the lack of a 2026 budget was not the issue and that relevant authorities had already confirmed that the contracts could have been issued in the national interest.

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