Procurement Arrangements for Construction of Government Quarantine Facilities, Community Recovery Facilities and Community Care Facilities

9 Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether a tender was waived for the construction of all Government Quarantine Facilities (GQF), Community Recovery Facilities (CRF) and Community Care Facilities (CCF); (b) if so, whether this was due to time constraint or other reasons; (c) whether all such construction works were planned to be cost recovery or below cost engagements; (d) what price reasonableness test was applied; (e) whether attempts were made to explore whether other event and exhibition construction firms were able and keen to undertake the engagement; and (f) whether further requisitions of GQFs, CRFs and CCFs are necessary and whether the engagements will be done on a cost recovery or below cost basis.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Lawrence Wong): Mr Deputy Speaker, the Government has responded swiftly to put in place a range of facilities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. For Government Quarantine Facilities (GQFs) as well as dedicated facilities for Stay-Home Notice (SHN) requirements, we have made use of the capacity in existing Government chalets and hotels. In the case of hotels, we benchmarked the quotes provided by the hotel operators and negotiated for competitive rates, taking into account the prevailing market conditions.

For Community Care Facilities (CCFs) and Community Recovery Facilities (CRFs), apart from using ready live-in accommodation like army camps and students’ residences, we also had to prepare new facilities in a very short time. We, therefore, moved quickly to fit out the Changi Exhibition Centre, the Singapore Expo, Big Box, the former ITE site at Ang Mo Kio, vacant factories and Tanjong Pagar terminal with beds and partitions and, in some cases, tentages, to quickly house the patients. And we now know from experience that I think we did all these not a moment too soon because we were able to get the capacity in place to look after quite a large number of infected patients without overwhelming our healthcare system.

The contracting of hotels and the construction of fit-out works were undertaken under Emergency Procurement, as my colleague Second Minister Indranee has highlighted earlier. This is provided for under the Government Procurement Rules, where urgent purchases have to be made in a pandemic outbreak and there is insufficient time to follow the normal procurement rules. The Emergency Procurement procedure allows for tenders to be waived and for contracts to be directly awarded to vendors with the necessary experience, expertise and resources to get the job done within a short period of time.

Notwithstanding the waiver of tender under such Emergency Procurement, all the agencies recognise the need for accountability in the use of public funds. All decisions for the setting up of CCFs and CRFs are, therefore, approved by the Multi Ministry Taskforce. The agencies will ensure that the quotes from the commercial partners are reasonable by comparing against market benchmarks, they will scrutinise the invoices and ensure that the works meet the standards required by the Government before processing the payments. In some cases, we have been able to get private sector companies to support the projects on a cost-recovery basis as part of their contributions to the community.

The Government will continue to partner different stakeholders, including private sector companies, to ensure an effective whole-of-society response to COVID-19, while maintaining a prudent and disciplined approach in the use of public funds.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Pritam Singh.

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): I thank the Minister for his reply and also the reply from Second Minister for Finance earlier on to Assoc Prof Walter Theseira's question. They were quite helpful for members of the public to understand what emergency procurement is about, including the answer given by the Second Minister for Finance on audit, which explained that it is not as if audit has been done away with.

My question is on non-emergency procurement, going forward, with regard to perhaps quarantine facilities, stay-at-home facilities, whether the Task Force – as alluded to by the Second Minister for Finance – is considering more open tender processes, so Singaporean companies, other companies can participate, in light of the economic situation.

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Deputy Speaker, as I had explained earlier, we had to rely on emergency procurement given the nature of the pandemic, given the time urgency that we were at and the need to activate our facilities very quickly.

Certainly, looking forward, if the situation were to stabilise and the conditions permit, agencies will consider going beyond emergency procurement to get more quotes or even to go through contracting via GeBIZ. And this would apply not just for the setting up of facilities, but for a whole range of contracting requirements that the Task Force require. But I think first and foremost, let us focus on the mission and the mission is not over, the fight is still on. So, we will do whatever is necessary to get the job done and to deal with the virus.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Assoc Prof Walter Theseira.

Assoc Prof Walter Theseira (Nominated Member): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Just to follow up on the questions which have been raised. I think the public understands completely that during emergency procurement, there is a need to get these goods and services delivered quickly by trusted suppliers. But given that the emergency procurement rules or situation may continue for quite some time, what can the Government do to try to broaden the number of vendors out there who could be eligible for providing goods and services under the emergency procurement rules?

For example, will it be possible to take a bit of time for the agencies to look at the landscape, the firms out there and to review the list of companies on this emergency procurement list? I think that would be very important to not only give us a good price and quality of goods and services, but also to assure enterprises that they will be able to help out and participate, and also, help their bottom line out a bit.

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Member for the question which is related to what Mr Singh had asked earlier too. I would say that even under the scenario of emergency procurement today, agencies do not immediately go with one vendor. So, the various agencies that are looking at all sorts of contracting procurement requirements do already today engage a few vendors – whether it is for are M&E works, whether it is for consultancy services and then they get the quotes. Even though it is not required under emergency procurement, they could have gone directly. They have already done that. They check the different quotations and then they go with a supplier. So, a range of different suppliers are already being used under today's scenario and that situation will continue.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Assoc Prof Walter, next question.