---

President Mori creates a Contract Review Committee

Palikir, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services): June 15, 2011 - On June 3, 2011, President Manny Mori issued a memorandum to Secretary Francis Itimai of the Department of Transportaion, Communication and Infrastructure (TC&I), Secretary Marion Henry of the Department of Resources and Development, Secretary Maketo Robert of the Department of Justice, and Acting Sectretary Rose Nakanaga of the Department of Finance and Administration instructing them to name nominees from their departments to sit on a newly created Contract Review Committee (CRC).

The CRC is tasked to review and evaluate bid proposals for small scale construction projects for the National Government, including reporting on evaluations and recommendations on bid proposals to Contracting Officer through the Secretary of DTC&I.

"I would like to create a Contract Review Committee for transparency and to avoid misconception of the public on how the National Government selects and awards public funded projects", President Mori explained to the Secretaries in his transmittal.

According to Secretary Itimai, a number of projects are overseen by his department according to terms of their enabling legislations on short to medium term basis. All of these projects vary in scope and funding amount from as low as $35,000 to nearly $500,000 in U.S. dollars. These are projects apart from Compact controlled infrastructure projects.

Current bid proposal review and recommendation process is done by a panel of three to five members from within the Department of TC&I who primarily report to the Secretary. The selected proposal is then given over to the Department of Justice for legal review and the Department of Finance and Administration for certification of funding. When funds are certified and legal sufficiency of the proposal is ascertained, then a notification of award is rendered to the bidder.

The creation of the CRC will eliminate the "in-house" review panel and involve members from the named departments in the evaluation process to bolster transparency and other considerations for equal opportunity to potential bidders. The CRC may need to eventually put in place its procedural policy and regulations. As of June 9, 2011, all participating departments have sent their nominees to the President's Office.