Minister Gumbs: Public school maintenance tender received no bids, retender likely

GREAT BAY--Government’s effort to establish a structured maintenance program for St. Maarten’s public schools has hit an unexpected obstacle, with Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Melissa Gumbs revealing that the tender issued earlier this year received no bids.

Gumbs said developing a structural maintenance system for public schools was one of the issues she began addressing after taking office. She recalled questioning, while still a Member of Parliament, whether government had a long-term maintenance program for its school buildings and said she never received a clear answer at the time.

The Ministry subsequently moved to develop such a system, with a tender going out earlier this summer. However, according to the Minister’s latest information, no companies submitted bids.

“The tender actually had gone out earlier in the summer this year. But surprisingly, we have not, to my last update, received any bids,” Gumbs said. She indicated that government will probably have to retender the program.

Gumbs said the objective is to move away from the current practice of responding to maintenance problems largely as they arise. She explained that ad hoc maintenance can be costly and slow, particularly when relatively small issues are allowed to develop into larger problems before they are addressed.

Under the proposed system, the successful contractor would routinely inspect public schools rather than waiting for individual repair requests. Smaller defects could be corrected immediately, while larger problems requiring more extensive work could be identified early and addressed separately.

“You have a lot of ad hoc maintenance, but that’s always very expensive,” Gumbs said. “With this, we want to make it structured.”

She explained that the intention is for the contracted company to regularly visit the schools, assess their condition and deal with minor repairs on the spot. Larger structural or capital works would still have to be handled at another level.

The approach would effectively shift public school maintenance toward prevention rather than repeated emergency intervention, allowing government to identify deteriorating conditions before they require larger and more expensive repairs.

Gumbs also challenged local contractors who regularly criticize the physical condition of public schools to participate when the project is offered again.

She said she hopes those who have been vocal about the condition of school buildings will “put their money where their mouth is” and submit bids for the maintenance program when another opportunity becomes available.

The Minister did not give a date for the expected retender during the interview, nor did she provide the estimated value of the contract.

The disclosure comes as school infrastructure remains one of the recurring concerns within the education sector, particularly at older public school buildings where repairs are frequently required.

Gumbs’ position is that dealing with individual problems as they occur will not provide a long-term solution. Instead, government wants a system where the condition of every public school is monitored continuously, minor problems are dealt with promptly and larger maintenance needs are identified before they become emergencies.

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