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www.skipper.co.nz end. As one would expect, MID sought leave to respond as a design office to a number of requests made by local yards to provide the design portion of their proposed bid. MFAT advised that they could not consider any tender response where MID was the design portion as they would have an unfair advantage – effectively removing one of our respected design companies from submitting a design bid with one or more local ship builders. I thought the whole idea was to get the best bid? This being the case, and with such a short tender bid period, only one New Zealand company lodged an effective design and build bid along with a number of offshore companies. Besides the short six week time frame, one of the reasons why many New Zealand yards did not tender a bid was because they did not want to throw good money after bad. For any company to make a meaningful bid the cost of its preparation can be anything up to $40,000 with no certainty of a return. Do this a couple of times and one gets to be a bit cautious of the Government intent. The tender evaluation panel consisting of a string of consultants reviewed envelope one (for design bids) on April 29 and envelope two (for the build) on May 9. All bidders were then notified that they had been unsuccessful by email on May 23, with no further correspondence being considered. Now, this is where the process really starts to get interesting – or maybe a bit dodgy. Before any of the bidders had been notified, we spotted on the Government website www.aid.govt.nz that a contract had TOTAL MARINE: • Wharves • Jetty and Marina Construction and Repair • Marine Towing • Pile Driving and Drilling • Salvage • Barge and Tug Hire VIP.S91 As there are no harbours or safe anchorages in ges Tokelau, the transfer of passengers and cargo to rgo hters the shore is undertaken by transfer to lighters while the vessel is loitering in deep water outside tside the reef. To meet the operational requirements the vessel will be a bit different in its design, but it will be through a unique combination of he features and arrangement of spaces to suit the he transport service and cultural needs of the e people of Tokelau, rather than cutting edge l design. The overall design of the vessel will be straightforward, with a low level of system complexity to match the small budget for the vessel. Although the length is not specified, the The ma in atoll of Tokelau vessel will be less than 500 gross register Nukun onu tonnes, probably under 45 metres, with the ability to carry 60 passengers, at least 20 tonnes of cargo and five tonnes of refrigerated cargo. s Another fact; We understand that this was the third time a bid y for a new Tokelau ferry has been requested by Government. It has ter been stressed that the current vessel on charter is both expensive and does not comply with the flag state rules for SOLAS. The Government advised us that it has made a promise to the Tokelau people for a new ship and intended to honour this pledge. The project is being managed by New Zealand Aid and funded by New Zealand Aid along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade who have contracted a number of consulting firms to assist at different stages of the project. We understand Beca and Marine Industrial Design (MID) have been involved to date and now we have Mark Oxley of Pacific Maritime Services as project manager and naval architect Harry Stronach acting as technical advisor. Meanwhile, there has been extensive lobbying by New Zealand Marine and assurances given to the New Zealand Marine Ship and Workboat group in a meeting in 2011 between New Zealand Marine, Minister Brownlee and subsequently with Minister McCulley in 2012 that all steps would be taken to ensure the boat was built in New Zealand. The watered down message trickled over to MFAT and was promptly ignored. Where was the desire of the Government to ensure that any vessel being funded by New Zealand Aid for the Pacific or even local waters, would be built in New Zealand. Who was it that changed the Ministers' good intent? Both Ministers clearly recognised the social and economic benefits to our industry and the local communities for such projects to remain in New Zealand. Not forgetting the Government's tax take in PAYE, ACC levies and GST as the money is shared around. Even Peter Dunne, then Minister for Revenue, was happy in his support. As we have seen, the design and build of the vessel was well within the capabilities of New Zealand designers and ship builders. MID have been involved in the project since 2011, specifically working on the preparation of the design concepts to meet both the needs of the client and the budget set out by our Government. All good, one would have thought. So what went wrong? Sadly, as happens all too often, staff changes within various Ministries have meant that the project has faltered at every step of the way. To compensate it would appear that the easy answer was to employ another consultant, when all that was achieved was the addition of another level of cost and confusion to the debate. It was at this point, when the latest round of tenders were called, that the MID assist contract with MFAT came to an TOTAL FLOATS: Design, Supply and Installation of all Floating Structures: Marinas – Commercial and Private Wharf Pontoons Phone 09 818 1541 • Fax 09 818 9451 www.totalmarineservices.co.nz September/October 2013 Professional Skipper 25