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INSIDEBeacon Business..........................16

Vol. 29 No. 3 • 2 sections, 52 pages

Road Town, Tortola,

British Virgin Islands

© 2012, The BVI BEACON

Spotlight: Andre BraithwaiteIsland Weekend & Culture

— page 4

Ministry still resolvingproject’s issues By JASON SMITHjsmith@bvibeacon.com

An architectural firm received apayment last month for more than$201,000 to settle an outstandingbill for its 2009 and 2010 work onthe long-stalled greenhouses, ac-cording to a recently signed con-tract. And despite previous setbacks,government officials pledge to keeppressing on with the project.

Premier Dr. Orlando Smith

Gov’t pays $201k to settle 2009 greenhouse bill

Greenhouses see page 22

Hodge says companychosen on meritBy JASON SMITHjsmith@bvibeacon.com

An architectural firm owned by in-laws of formerNatural Resources and Labour Minister OmarHodge received six petty contracts totaling morethan $530,000 in 2008 and 2009, while the min-istry was under his supervision, records show.

Mirsand Town Planning and Architects Ltd.was one of several firms selected for contracts re-

lated to the greenhouse project and efforts to re-mediate a flooding problem in Johnsons Ghut.

But Mr. Hodge said in a Monday interviewthat the choices were made solely on merit, notfamily ties.

Firm’s contractsUnder Mr. Hodge’s watch, the Ministry of

Natural Resources and Labour chose Mirsandfor three petty contracts totaling $230,955.46 re-lated to the Johnsons Ghut project over a two-year period, according to a listing of pettycontracts enclosed with the 2008 and 2009 re-

MINISTRY GAVE $530K IN CONTRACTS TO MINISTER’S RELATIVES’ FIRM

Contracts see page 22

Pre-G8, VIagrees toautomaticinfo exchangeOther OTs sign on as wellBy CHRYSTALL KANYUCKckanyuck@bvibeacon.com

In a move officials said underscoresthe territory’s commitment totransparency, the Virgin Islandsagreed to take part in a pilot pro-gramme of automatic informationexchange with five European coun-tries during a pre-G8 meeting withUnited Kingdom Prime MinisterDavid Cameron on Saturday.

The programme, which otherBritish overseas territories willalso join, is part of Mr. Cameron’stax, trade and transparency agendafor his time serving as the presi-dent of the G8, a group of theworld’s largest economies:Canada, France, Germany, Italy,Japan, Russia, the UK and theUnited States.

Summit see page 7

But men still far in minorityBy NGOVOU GYANGngyang@bvibeacon.com

When Bernard Smith Jr. learnedthat he had been selected to be thestudent respondent at the H. Lav-ity Stoutt Community Collegegraduation ceremony last Thurs-day, he was nervous, but he didn’tshy away from the challenge.

Clad in a green gown and ayellow stole, Mr. Smith addresseda graduating class of 203 otherstudents.

“It is important that in everyavenue of life, you aim for the starwith your name on it. Serve great-ness as a goal,” Mr. Smith told thegraduates in a speech that earnedhim a standing ovation.

He was among 56 men whograduated this year, making historyas the highest number of males ina graduating class. Last year, 49 of203 graduates were men.

Photo: NGOVOU GYANG

Graduates of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College prepare to receive their diplomas last Thursday on the school lawn. Twohundred and four students graduated.

Record number of males finish at HLSCC

Graduation see page 6

Page 22 | Thursday, June 20, 2013 | The BVI Beacon Local News

signed a May 6 contract with JoseAmilcar Camilo Castellanos, thedirector of the firm Mirsand TownPlanning and Architects Limited.Under the contract, Mirsand re-ceived a $201,938.29 payment andthe firm dropped “any and allclaims asserted, which could havebeen asserted or which may po-tentially be asserted against thegovernment,” according to a copyof the contract filed at the HighCourt Registry.

ContractThe settlement contract states

that Mirsand was hired to “pro-vide cost proposal for servicessuch as architectural design, hy-draulic studies and earthworksconstruction design, as well asquantity surveying, supervisionand management” for six green-houses: three to be built in SouthSound, Virgin Gorda, and threein Paraquita Bay.

The agreement, which wasregistered publicly, compels bothparties to keep the settlement con-fidential and includes a “mutualnon-admission of liability” clause,through which both parties denythat any wrongdoing occurred.

“This agreement has been en-tered into on the basis statedherein and to avoid the expenseand burden of litigation,” the con-tract states.

In a June 10 interview,Ronald Smith-Berkeley, thepermanent secretary in the Min-istry of Natural Resources andLabour, declined to speakspecifically about the Mirsandsettlement but said that therewas “nothing untoward or un-usual” about the delay in pay-ment. He added that theministry is working to settle itspast due obligations related tothe project.

“The greenhouses, it’s just amatter of getting all the bills inand getting all the bills paid. It’snothing out the ordinary,” he said.

The Mirsand settlement marksat least the second time in recentmonths that officials have had tocut cheques to pay past-due bills re-lated to the greenhouse project.

According to a contract signedlast September, 19 months afterwork had been completed, theMNRL paid Enchantment Hold-

ings — a contractor that excavatedmore than 73,800 cubic yards ofearth to prepare the South Soundsite — the remaining$332,318.04 of the $644,455.00that it was owed.

‘Third pillar’Former Natural Resources

and Labour Minister OmarHodge originally spearheadedgovernment’s efforts to build thegreenhouses, which he repeat-edly said were needed to makeagriculture the “third pillar” of

the territory’s economy.Representatives of the

Miami-based firm InternationalBusiness and Trade, LLC, firstmade a presentation to House ofAssembly members in Caucus inOctober 2007, months after theVirgin Islands Party’s resound-ing victory at the polls broughtabout a change in government,according to IBT’s 2009 contractwith government.

In May 2008, Mr. Hodge led aVI government delegation —

which included then-OppositionLeader Dr. Smith and former at-large representative Irene Penn-O’Neal — on a trip to theDominican Republic to view ex-amples of IBT’s greenhouses inoperation there.

Eight months later the firminked a $5.4 million contract withgovernment to build and partiallyfinance the greenhouses, by help-ing officials obtain a $4.6 millionloan from the Spanish branch ofDeutsche Bank.

The remaining $822,000 forthe project was to be paid throughother government funds, accord-ing to the IBT contract.

After some delay, land clear-ing for the VG site and theconstruction of the ParaquitaBay greenhouses finished in2010, though to date both sitesremain inoperable. No struc-tures have been erected on theVG site.

In a phone interview Monday,

Greenhouses: Gov’t pays $201k to settle 2009 billContinued from page 1

Greenhouses see page 23

ports of the auditor general.These contracts included two for road

and drainage system design in 2008 and onefor supervision, quantity surveying and engi-neering in 2009.

Mirsand also received three separate$100,000 petty contracts in 2009 in connec-tion with the greenhouse project: two forproject supervision and one for quantity sur-veying, according to the audit reports.

Petty contracts typically have a maxi-mum value of $100,000 and are awarded ata minister’s discretion without a formal ten-der process.

In a Monday interview, Mr. Hodge de-fended Mirsand’s selection for those con-tracts.

“That guy, he’s a good, a very good, engi-neer — an experienced engineer — and youneed a good engineer around these parts,”Mr. Hodge said of the company’s CEO, JoseAmilcar Camilo Castellanos.

Mr. Castellanos is married to Sandra Es-ther Rodriguez Cuello-Camilo, who is thesister of Mr. Hodge’s wife, Dr. Miriam Ro-driguez Hodge.

Greenhouse contractMr. Hodge said that in the case of the

$300,000 in greenhouse contracts, it was In-ternational Business and Trade, LLC — thefirm that won a $5.4 million contract in2009 to establish six greenhouses inParaquita Bay and South Sound, VirginGorda — that recommended Mirsand forthe job.

“There’s no conflict of interest. I did notpick him. It was the company from abroadthat picked him,” Mr. Hodge said of theMiami-based IBT.

Asked if he ever benefitted financiallyfrom any contracts awarded to Mirsand, theformer minister replied, “Definitely not.”

For the $300,000 in greenhouse contracts,Premier Dr. Orlando Smith signed off on a$201,938.29 settlement with the company lastmonth to settle its outstanding claims.

On Monday, Mr. Castellanos declined tospeak at length about the settlement, or whyhis firm was chosen for the work. But headded that as a civil engineer he has experi-ence in supervising the sort of assembly workrequired in the greenhouse project.

“I don’t see any relation to any familyconnection or anything like that,” he said.

Johnsons GhutIn the case of Mirsand’s work at John-

sons Ghut, which was part of Mr. Hodge’sconstituency when he was the Sixth Districtrepresentative, the company was one of morethan 60 small firms chosen to split morethan $5.2 million in petty contracts in 2008and 2009, many of which were close to the$100,000 maximum.

In order to resolve the flooding issue,contractors covered the ghut with concrete,widened the road, and made extensive revi-sions to the area’s drainage system. Those ef-forts, though, weren’t enough to eliminatethe serious flooding caused by heavy rains in2009 and 2010.

Now, more improvements are under con-sideration, according Communications andWorks Minister Mark Vanterpool, who saidafter his election in 2011 that the project hadbeen transferred to his ministry.

Mr. Hodge said that despite criti-cisms of the project ’s cost he is pleasedwith the result.

“I transformed Purcell there for thepeople. And the people are happy aboutthat,” he said.

The practice of splitting governmentprojects into multiple petty contracts hasbeen the source of much criticism and dis-cussion in the House of Assembly in recentmonths.

But Mr. Hodge said Monday that theoption of awarding one major contract in-stead of hiring multiple contractors doesn’tfit with the territory’s political reality.

“The people will kill you,” he said. “Thelonger you stay here the more you’ll under-stand the people. If you give one major con-tract you won’t stay in politics. You have tomake sure that the people have work.”

Other projectsThe greenhouse and Johnsons Ghut

works are two of several examples ofgovernment’s long-standing associationwith Mirsand.

Of the 15 “featured projects” listed onthe company’s website as examples of thefirm’s design and engineering work, eightwere public projects commissioned underVirgin Islands Party- or National Demo-cratic Party-led governments.

Some of the projects have faced lengthydelays and cost overruns, including theconstruction of a replacement to PeeblesHospital, on which the firm participated aspart of a consortium with Carimex LLCand Quality Construction.

In other cases, such as a proposal to builda post office in Purcell Estate and a plan tocreate a hospitality centre at Paraquita Bay,designs completed by Mirsand’s architectswere never put to use, because the projectswere cancelled.

In addition to its government work,the firm has also worked on several com-mercial projects in Road Town, such asthe Trident Trust building, the WCITwins Building, and Mr. Hodge’s O.C.Commercial Building, according to Mir-sand’s website.

Firm’s paymentThe full extent of the company’s work on

government projects and how Mirsand waschosen for those contracts has not beenmade public.

As of yesterday’s deadline, this re-porter had not received a response to aJune 6 written request made to KalleeshaMendie, the territory’s acting accountantgeneral, for a full list of government’spayments to the firm and copies of thepetty contracts.

Attempts to obtain the informationthrough the Ministry of Finance were alsounsuccessful.

Dr. Smith, who, as finance minister,signed the greenhouse settlement contract,did not respond to requests for comment forthis article.

Contracts from page 1

The BVI Beacon | Thursday, June 20, 2013 | Page 23Local News

The firm Mirsand Town Planning and Architects Ltd. advertises

a lengthy list of completed projects on its website, many of

which were commissioned by the Virgin Islands government.

Several of the contracts awarded to the firm, which is registered

to Jose Amilcar Camilo Castellanos and his wife Sandra Esther

Rodriguez Cuello-Camilo, were petty contracts issued under the

Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour during the tenure of

long-serving Sixth District representative Omar Hodge. Mr.

Hodge’s wife, Dr. Miriam Rodriguez-Hodge, is the sister of Ms.

Cuello-Camilo, he told the Beacon in a 1989 interview about his plans to construct Road

Town’s Omar Hodge Building. Mirsand was founded in 1988, according to the company’s

website. Below is a sampling of government projects on which the firm has worked.

Sources: Mirsand website, Beacon archive.

MIRSAND AND A MINISTER

Note: Areas marked “N/A” indicate information the Beacon was unable to obtain.

VIRGIN GORDA FISHERS’ RAMPYear started: 2008

Total project cost: about $138,000

Mirsand’s payment: N/A

Supervising agency: Ministry of

Natural Resources and Labour

• Mirsand acted as engineer and supervisor

on the ramp’s construction, which was initi-

ated by Mr. Hodge, then-Premier Ralph O’Neal said at the project’s Feb. 26, 2008 ground-

breaking ceremony. Construction was initially expected to last four months, Ministry of

Natural Resources and Labour officials said at the time. However, the project faced a “slight

delay” due to the need to prepare the seabed, Mr. Hodge told House of Assembly members

in January 2009. It was subsequently completed.

GREENHOUSESYear started: 2009

Total project cost: At least $5.9 million

Mirsand’s payment: at least $201,938.29

Supervising agency: Ministry of

Natural Resources and Labour

• Mirsand was hired in 2009 to complete de-

sign works, hydraulic studies, earthworks

construction design, quantity surveying, supervision and construction management for gov-

ernment’s plans to install large commercial greenhouses in Paraquita Bay, Tortola, and South

Sound, Virgin Gorda. Land for the VG site was cleared and construction of the structures at

Paraquita Bay finished in 2011, but currently neither site is functioning due to the need to

resolve “very weighty” issues of intellectual property, current Natural Resources and Labour

Minister Dr. Kedrick Pickering said last December. Premier Dr. Orlando Smith signed a

$201,938.29 contract with the firm on May 6 to settle claims “which could have been as-

serted” against the government.

JOHNSONS GHUTYear started: 2008

Total project cost: at least $5.2 million

Mirsand’s payment: $237,847.45

Supervising agency: Ministry of

Natural Resources and Labour

• The project, initially forecast to cost $3.5 mil-

lion, included a boulevard and a series of

grates. It was designed to remedy a longstanding flooding problem in the Johnsons Ghut area.

Mirsand received three petty contracts totaling $237,847.45 for design and supervision works re-

lated to the project, according to a list included in the 2008 and 2009 reports filed by the Office of

the Auditor General. Communications and Works Minister Mark Vanterpool told legislators in De-

cember 2011 that the “quite controversial” project had been transferred from the MNRL to his

ministry. The Public Works Department, Mr. Vanterpool said, would implement additional meas-

ures to mitigate flooding in the area.

Mr. Hodge, the former ministerwho was voted out of office inNovember 2011, said the green-house delays that occurred nearthe end of his tenure happenedbecause monies weren’t availableto pay IBT promptly.

“We owed the company somefunds. The premier [RalphO’Neal] didn’t send the funds on.They had their ideas. So wecouldn’t finish the project, whichI think is a great mistake,” Mr.Hodge said.

Contacted about the settlementMonday, Mr. Castellanos, Mirsand’sdirector, deferred comment to theMNRL, but he added that his firmwas one of several whose paymentswere delayed.

Mr. Hodge said that he re-mains confident that if the projectwas functioning as intended itwould bring significant benefits tothe territory in terms of lowerprices, increased food security anda general economic boost.

“This is a massive thing andhad we completed that and certainthings we’d be in a much betterposition now,” he said of the for-mer government’s plan to diversifythe territory’s economy throughagriculture. “I thought it would bebest to pursue that line of action.We had evidence of the fact thatthese [greenhouses] work. Weagreed that it was the best wayforward and I pursued that.”

Mr. Hodge added that muchof the vociferous criticism thatgovernment received was due tofarmers’ concerns that they would-n’t be included in the project.

‘Intellectual property’Deputy Premier Dr. Kedrick

Pickering, who succeeded Mr.Hodge as MNRL minister, re-cently called the greenhouses a“very tricky issue,” asserting at aDecember HOA meeting that theministry had to resolve issues ofintellectual property before pro-ceeding with the project.

Asked about those intellectualproperty issues, Mr. Hodge saidthat the current delays need to beaddressed by Dr. Pickering.

“I think what happened thereis: I don’t think he understands theway forward, but he’s not going togo ahead and say that because he’sa politician,” Mr. Hodge said.

Dr. Pickering did not respondto requests for comment for thisarticle. But, at an April “agri-

Greenhouses from page 22

Greenhouses see page 24

BEEF ISLAND BRIDGEYear started: 1999

Total project cost: At least $6.6 million

Mirsand’s payment: N/A

Supervising agency:Ministry of

Finance

• Work on the bridge connecting Tortola

to Beef Island began in 1999 and was

forecast to cost about $2.3 million. The construction work was carried out by the Domini-

can Republic-based firm Samuel S. Conde and Associates, but Mirsand performed engi-

neering work on the project, according to the firm’s website. After a lengthy standoff

with Conde involving disputes over design changes, delayed government payments, and

disagreements about a site for the project, government paid $3 million in 2002 to settle

Conde’s legal claims. The bridge opened in 2003.

PURCELL POST OFFICEYear started: N/A

Total project cost: N/A

Mirsand’s payment: N/A

Supervising agency: Ministry of

Finance

• The listing of “featured projects” on

Mirsand’s website shows a drawing of a

“study tender” for a general post office once planned for Purcell Estate, which is in the

Sixth District that Mr. Hodge represented until 2011. The study tender was completed in

partnership with the Belgian architecture firm Atelier D’Art Urbain. Government’s cost to

develop the plans is unclear. But according to the report of the 2006 Standing Finance

Committee, then-Postmaster General Kevin Smith told legislators that the proposed Pur-

cell Estate site that had been earmarked was not suitable for a post office. The Purcell Es-

tate post office was never built.

NEW HOSPITALYear started: 2007

Total project cost: At least $113 million

Mirsand’s payment: Unknown

portion of $63.9 million

Supervising agency: Ministry of

Health and Social Development

• Mirsand was a member of the three-firm consortium — along with the Dominican Re-

public-based Carimex LLC and the VI-based Quality Construction — that received a $63.9

million contract in 2007 to build a 128-bed replacement to Peebles Hospital. After a pro-

tracted standoff, government canceled the consortium’s contract in 2010 amidst concerns

that large portions of the hospital’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing works had to be

redone. Carimex representatives disputed the allegations of shoddy work.

HOSPITALITY CENTREYear started: 2005

Projected project cost: $18 million

Mirsand’s payment: Unknown por-

tion of $770,000

Supervising agency: H. Lavity

Stoutt Community College

• Government initially contracted with a consortium composed of Mirsand and D’Art Ur-

bain to build a hospitality centre in Paraquita Bay behind H. Lavity Stoutt Community

College’s Marine Studies Centre. Designs, which were to be built to standards required by

the New England Culinary Institute, included conference rooms and housing for up to 120

students, raising the project’s estimated cost from $14 million to $18 million, Amilcar

Camilo, the consortium’s director, said in a 2008 interview. The plans were cancelled and

after a lawsuit, government paid the architects $770,000 for their design costs.

business seminar,” he told farmersthat in addition to the outstand-ing bills he inherited upon his2011 ministerial appointment, hefound that the designers of thegreenhouses could have assertedclaims to be compensated fortheir intellectual property used inthe project.

“What that means is the de-signers of the greenhouses, they’regoing to claim ad infinitum — inother words for the next 200 years— they’re going to be claimingmoney from government if we’dproceeded along the same path-way,” Dr. Pickering said. “We haveto sort those issues out if we aregoing to do something about thegreenhouses.”

He did not name the companythat could have asserted the

claims, but he added that his min-istry was “that close” to workingout final agreements with thefirms that have unpaid bills relatedto the project.

“The plan is, as soon as we’vecompleted that process and gov-ernment then has a clear pathwayto move forward, we’re going toopen up the greenhouses to pri-vate investment,” Dr. Pickeringsaid, adding he’d like to see farm-ers invest in the project.

Mr. Smith-Berkeley, theMNRL permanent secretary, saidlast week that although he couldn’tgive definitive timelines for the un-resolved issues to be settled, Dr.Pickering and the MNRL remain“very committed” to the project.

“The minister mentionedpractically from his first day onthe job that he intends to moveforward on the project,” Mr.Smith-Berkeley said.

Page 24 | Thursday, June 20, 2013 | The BVI Beacon Local News

Company mappedout Anegada landsBy JASON SMITHjsmith@bvibeacon.com

A surveying firm hired by theMinistry of Natural Resourcesand Labour in 2009 to help re-solve a more-than-100-year-oldland dispute in Anegada was onlyrecently paid for some of its work.

According to a May 14 con-

tract filed at the High Court Reg-istry, Premier Dr. Orlando Smithagreed for $94,950 to be paid toChalwell Surveying Services forits work to survey more than1,000 lots in eastern Anegada.

Along with former PremierRalph O’Neal, representatives ofthe firm inked a $607,050 con-tract on July 7, 2009, to carry outthe works.

In a June 10 interview, RonaldSmith-Berkeley, the permanentsecretary in the Ministry of Natural

Resources and Labour, said thatpayment had been delayed becausethe work took longer than expecteddue to difficulties posed by the ter-rain of the island’s interior.

On Monday, Shirley Chalwell,the firm’s director, declined tocomment about the delay.

The survey work was neces-sary to resolve uncertainties aboutland ownership on the island thathave existed since an 1885 agree-ment was reached to hand outland titles to Anegadians.

Greenhouses from page 23Gov’t settles 2009 payment to surveying firm