In sourcing for vendors for the CNMI\u2019s COVID-19 response operations, they get it where they can. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s according to Patrick Guerrero, the Governor\u2019s Authorized Representative, at a hearing conducted by the House Special Committee on Federal Assistance and Disaster Related Funding last week. <\/p>\n
In cases of immediate emergency, this is usually practiced for just up to the first two months only, he added.<\/p>\n
This is in response to an inquiry from Rep. Tina Sablan (Ind-Saipan) regarding the decision-making that happens when sourcing for vendors.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually, the first 30, 45, sometimes 60 days of a disaster, it\u2019s \u2018get it where you can,\u2019 \u2018get it where you already know they can deliver,\u2019\u201d he said, \u201c\u2026At the beginning of the disaster, when you\u2019ve already identified somebody and they meet your needs, they meet your timing, they\u2019re performing, we don\u2019t really [need] to look for another person right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guerrero was quick to acknowledge that, as the disaster continues to unfold, to be more competitive, and to meet federal regulations, the CNMI government should spend more time to reach out to others who could provide the needed services for the island\u2019s pandemic-related operations. <\/p>\n
For services that the government needs long-term, the governor\u2019s authorized representative extends the invitation for other vendors to bid, and also recommended for the CNMI Homeland Security to spend more time seeking out sources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working toward that because the [Attorney General]\u2026wants to make sure that we\u2019re justifying these purchases and not just sole-sourcing, or giving it to one particular vendor over and over again, unless, nobody else can do so,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
At the session, it was explained that the Emergency Operations Center of the CNMI Homeland Security handles the procurement processes for emergency contracts, with review from the Office of the Attorney General. <\/p>\n
Playing favorites<\/strong><\/p>\n When asked by Sablan about playing favorites and the potential for kickbacks in the awarding of contracts, in reference to talks about Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 staff being awarded a contract to provide for some meals, Guerrero flat-out said that he is not aware of the situation. <\/p>\n \u201cI am not aware of that member of the Governor\u2019s staff, or the company that\u2019s providing services. That\u2019s not to my knowledge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Further, Finance Secretary David Atalig stressed that the company Sablan was \u201calluding to\u201d is not being favored, adding that several companies have been tapped to also provide meal services. <\/p>\n In a list of contracts provided to lawmaker at the session, four vendors were identified to have provided for a cumulative $68,750.55 worth of meals: Tony Roma\u2019s, Kent Kalen DBA Legends BBQ, J\u2019s Restaurant, and Terry\u2019s Snack Bar. <\/p>\n \u201cThis company that you\u2019re alluding to is not being favored because they\u2019re only providing just one meal a day, and then being rotated by different agencies that are ordering. And their orders are not even at the level of some of the other vendors that we\u2019re paying,\u201d Atalig added. \u201cWe\u2019ve had community members contact us saying how can we also provide, and so we did include the bid, and we try to rotate this. As GAR [Guerrero] said, share the wealth among all the available providers out there for meals.\u201d<\/p>\n He also said that, as the Attorney General always reiterates, \u201cin an emergency, get services for the two- or three-week peak period, and then give yourself some time to seek other sources to be more competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n However, according to Guerrero, some contracts can get cancelled either due to the inability of the vendor to supply what is needed, or if the purchase is no longer a need. <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, it\u2019s the inability of the vendor to supply the good or service that could cause cancellation. Or it might no longer be a need before the vendor even supplies that product or service. Why purchase when there is no longer a need?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Spreading the wealth<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Guerrero, after that immediate emergency, time should be spent reaching out to vendors who could be interested in providing services related to the operations.<\/p>\n Vendors who would want to provide services, are \u201cmore than expected\u201d by Homeland Security\u2019s Emergency Operations Center Planning Section, he added. \u201cSpread the wealth, so to speak, but at the same time, as long as they can deliver the resource\u2026they could reach out to Homeland Security, and give out their pricing and what their capacity is.\u201d <\/p>\n Guerrero also added that while they do a lot of things manually in terms of procurement, a platform called Web EOC is on the way, which would enable vendors to easily interact digitally with Homeland Security. The service also works with the Public Assistance Program. <\/p>\n \u201cIt will allow for the vendors to be interactive with Homeland Security and put their resources up there and their rates and things like that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n According to Guerrero, the service might be up and running in the next 30 days, and will be made available to all private partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In sourcing for vendors for the CNMI\u2019s COVID-19 response operations, they get it where they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":323108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[865],"class_list":["post-323082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-playing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}