Farmers Cry Foul Over Latest School Lunch Program Bidding

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Objections have been raised by the American Samoa Farmers Cooperative concerning the latest bidding for the supply of local produce for the School Lunch Program.

According to vice president Barritt Siaumau Samatua, the Procurement Office has failed to abide by its own rules and requirements for the School Lunch Program bid.

Samua said in a letter to CPO Dr.Oreta Mapu Critchon, when the bid was first announced, Procurement presented a set of requirements that each bidder was expected to comply with in order to qualify to submit a bid.

All bidders were required to attend the pre bid conference and any party that didn’t attend would be disqualified.

However according to Samatua, their members were surprised when on the eve of the deadline for bids to be submitted, the Procurement Office removed the requirement to attend the pre bid conference.

The vice president says when they enquired about the change, the answer they for was that due to a clerical mistake, this condition was included when it was never meant to be a requisite.
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Samatua was upfront with CPO Critchon telling her the farmers thought the response was “disingenuous.”

He asked if it was a mistake, why did it take procurement so long to recognize that the pre bid condition was on the list of requirements.

Also if it was a mistake, why was the change made at the last hour on the day before the close of bidding.

Samatua said, “Procurement’s failure to observe the rules or maybe even a deliberate decision to deviate from them, may have drastically altered the outcome of the bid, mostly to the Cooperative’s detriment.

Samatua also registered their association’s concern that the CPO was allowing individuals who are not farmers to bid for the School Lunch Program .

He said allowing big business to bid means they would act as a middleman beteen the local farmer and the government, and this arrangement would drive up costs for ASG while keeping payments for farmers low.

He said allowing business people in the SLP bidding would take away an opportunity from farmers to earn some real money from their hard work and labor.

Nevertheless Samatua said the Cooperative is thankful that Procurement has mandated that each bidder be a genuine farmer engaging in farming on a daily basis, with inspections to check on adherence.

The Farmers Cooperative VP called on the Chief Procurement Officer to take their concerns into consideration and expressed the hope that by voicing their position, Dr. Crtichon would move to rectify some of the inequities they’ve encoucountered with the School Lunch Program bidding.

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