‘Investigate procurement of probe services for dialysis project’

The delayed completion of the Commonwealth Health’s Center’s multi-million-dollar hemodialysis center has sparked an investigation, but what if the procurement of probe services was also questionable?

Former congressman Stanley Torres raised this concern yesterday, when he asked the Office of the Public Auditor to investigate the procurement of the services of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was tasked to probe possible irregularities in the implementation of the dialysis center project.

Torres questioned the procurement process and the $50,000-contract the CNMI government had executed with the Army Corps, saying the task of conducting the probe of the dialysis project could have cost less.

“It is my understanding that the CNMI government has agreed to pay the Army Corps $50,000 to undertake this investigation. First, this seems like a sole-source procurement, even though it is with a federal agency,” Torres said in a letter to public auditor Michael Sablan.

“It is important to note that the Army Corps of Engineers competes for professional services against the private sector all the time. I believe that $50,000 may be excessive and perhaps could have been done for less if the work for the investigation had been advertised to the private sector, similar to what CUC [Commonwealth Utilities Corp.] did to analyze the power plant bids,” he added.

The former lawmaker said the Army Corps might have conflicts of interest with the Hawaii-based designer of the dialysis project, saying the company might have contracts with the federal agency.

“I also believe the procurement of the re-design work should be investigated as it appears that the fees for this work was close to, or exceeded, the original fees. My understanding is also that the re-design work was started before there was a notice to proceed and a contract issued,” Torres said.

A recently passed legislation appropriated $5.8 million to complete the dialysis project by reprogramming funds originally allotted for the Kagman wastewater project.

The reprogramming bill came following findings that the public health project’s over $11-million funding had been depleted, even as construction work was only about 40 percent completed.

Originally, the government allotted some $11.8 million in Capital Improvement Project funds for the dialysis center. Of that amount, the Department of Public Health awarded a $5.6-million contract to AIC Marianas to construct the facility.

The contractor had repeatedly asked for change orders, totaling over $4 million, allegedly due to faulty design. About $2 million had been spent for two architectural and engineering designs, while other expenses reportedly went to administrative activities.