‘Marpi landfill contract expired last October’

The five-year contract between the Department of Public Works and a contractor to operate the Marpi landfill already expired last October, according to Procurement and Supply acting director Francisco Aguon.

The contractor, Tangs Corp., has been allowed to continue operating the landfill because the request for proposal process is still ongoing, Aguon said.

The contract with Tang’s is worth about $70,000 per month.

This was learned during Aguon’s meeting with the House Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications Committee last Wednesday at the Legislature. Committee chair Rep. Marco T. Peter (R-Saipan) had invited Procurement and Supply to provide the status of the existing contract with DPW and the contractor.

With the expiration of the five-year contract, a new Department of Public Works Request for Proposals was submitted in 2019 and is now being routed, Aguon said in an interview after the meeting.

He said DPW, which is evaluating the proposals, will choose which candidate to proceed with the next five-year contract.

Last November, DPW Secretary James A. Ada informed Aguon about the five members of the evaluation committee for the proposals.

Aguon said that lawmakers when asked why they’re extending the existing contract with Tangs Corp. on a monthly basis, he replied that “there is no other contract to continue the operations in Marpi landfill yet as of this time because of the RFP process.”

“We are just extending it because the RFP is still ongoing,” said Aguon, adding that Procurement and Supply will get the results from DPW as soon as possible.

He said several companies responded to the RFP. “We hope that DPW gets the best contractor,” Aguon said.

He said that, according to their records, the existing contract is for five years for the operation of the landfill. HHe does not know whether DPW is going to sustain that five-year period but it will depend on the department as the expenditure authority. “Procurement and Supply is still waiting for DPW,” Aguon said.

In June 2014, then-DPW Secretary Martin Sablan confirmed that the six-month emergency contract awarded to Tangs Corp. to operate the landfill has been extended for three months in the amount of some $186,000.

Sablan said the extension would give DPW time to issue an RFP, receive bids, and ward a three-year contract for the landfill’s operation.

DPW awarded Tang’s Corps with a six-month emergency contract in December 2013 to operate the landfill for some $372,000. DPW then approved a three-month extension of that contract and subsequently another five-year contract.