Sen Baptiste asks how an MOU with a Barbadian company became an $18 Million construction contract

Senator Isaac Baptiste questions how could an (MOU), memorandum of understanding turn into a design and construction contract for an amount of $18 million. His question follows comments by DLP attorney Anthony Astaphan, defending the government’s untendered award of an $18 Million contract to that Barbadian company, for the construction of a bridge in the Capital City Roseau, which is known as the ‘West Bridge’. Astaphan argues that the award of the contract to the Barbadian based company is not illegal.
Baptiste says however, that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in 2014, was intended as an urban design concept for upgrading the towns of Roseau and Portsmouth. He is therefore questioning the legality of the untendered construction contract that the DLP Government signed with the Barbadian firm.