- Local Publication Claims Foreign Caterer Secured Sole Contract for T20 Matches in St. Vincent
Keshorn Shallow, President of West Indies Cricket, expressed disappointment and surprise at an article that include numerous misrepresentations about the number of caterers for T20 cricket in St. Vincent.
On Monday, the local online publication ANN reported that a foreign caterer was awarded the only contract for catering during T20 cricket matches in St. Vincent.
Shallow told Boom FM on Wednesday that there are ten caterers and one who would serve in the hospitality section.
“There are about at least 600 people that will be catered to at Arnos Vale cricket stadium. But the facts are, there are ten caterers involved that will be serving and/or servicing these hundreds of people at Arnos Vale for each match.”
Shallow said this is consistent to an extent across the islands, the six Caribbean countries, and Guyana.
“We are using seven caterers in Trinidad; eight caterers in Barbados; ten caterers in Saint Lucia; nine caterers in Antigua; and ten caterers in Saint Vincent.”.
“Now what I suspect the article is speaking about, and I think they did mention because I read it, is that I think this is in relation to hospitality; however, hospitality is just one component, and there was a comprehensive process that took place to recruit these service providers.”
Shallow said that in the case of the caterers, the local organising committee was approached and asked to provide information on the list of suggested caterers.
“These persons were contacted and asked to submit a proposal. In fact, we suggested a tour of these service providers’ kitchens and a tasting, but some people declined.”
“in hospitality There were five people shortlisted for this area. Two initially pulled out eventually because they say it was out of their depth once they realised what was being requested. Then, there were six participants: two withdrew, two did not submit any quotes, indicating their disqualification from the process, and two who did submit quotations; one was clearly selected.”
Shallow said the decisions that CWI makes with regards to procurement and recruitment must be able to withstand scrutiny, and he is quite confident that the process for recruiting and catering in St. Vincent is similar to that in other countries.
“There was a strong preference for using only one caterer for hospitality because of the kitchen space, so economies of scale obviously come in as a massive factor,” Shallow said.
