Lovell red-flags INNOTECH and asks whether tendering process took place ahead of its selection by the Cabinet

Harold Lovell is red-flagging the Barbados-based firm INNOTECH, which the Cabinet plans to engage to detect leaks in the country’s water-distribution pipes.

Lovell, the Political Leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), is also asking whether a tendering process was undertaken before this company was selected to conduct the work.

On Thursday night, September 1, Lovell revealed that there had been an issue between INNOTECH and the Barbados Water Authority which ended up in mediation. Reportedly, the dispute was over money, as the Political Leader explains.

Lovell says the engagement of this company is another of the Browne Administration’s “knee-jerk reactions” – without any proper research being done to ensure that taxpayers get value for money.

Accordingly, he questions the selection of this firm, which reportedly employs technology to detect leaks in buried water pipes.

For over eight years, Lovell says, the Administration has done nothing to address the water leakage – which, the Antigua Public Utilities Authority has said, runs in the millions of gallons per day.

But now, just ahead of the elections, it is hurrying to do everything, he says.

Looking ahead, Lovell says that a UPP Administration will look into the three limbs of the water problem, namely: production, distribution, and storage.

He says that leakage falls under the distribution limb, which requires taking full stock of the condition of the pipes and what would be needed to replace them.

The people need a government that will tackle this problem in a comprehensive way, rather than taking a hasty approach within a limited timeline, Lovell adds.