Guyana
In the wake of its investigation of the awarding of a pump station project to Tepui Inc which did not have the requisite experience, the PPC has recommended that evaluators stick rigidly with the evaluation criteria for tenders.
In its summary of findings issued on Tuesday, six months after a complaint by MP David Patterson, the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) recommended that “Evaluators must strictly abide with the express terms of the Evaluation Criteria for the tender being evaluated”. The PPC pointed out that the previous commission had said the Evaluation Committee should not consider evaluation criteria not outlined in the tender documents.
The PPC, chaired by attorney Pauline Chase, said that an Evaluation Committee “does not possess the authority, discretion or jurisdiction to vary or (waive) Evaluation Criteria unless expressly provided for in the tender documents”.
It also recommended that the Evaluation Committee should be “very meticulous” in its review of bids to ensure that they are evaluated in accordance with the Evaluation Criteria so that the Procurement Act is not breached.
“The Evaluation Report should give a true and complete account of the evaluation process. Accordingly, it must clearly set out all pertinent matters, including but not limited to, date of completion of the evaluation, analysis of the tenders, whether arithmetic checks were done in accordance with S. 39(4)(b) of the Procurement Act, Cap. 73:05 and whether clarification was sought from any of the bidders and if so the particulars thereof”, the PPC said.
The upshot of the summary of findings is that though Tepui did not comply with the evaluation criteria, a contract has already been signed and the PPC does not have any authority to rescind, recall or alter the contract in any way.
The PPC’s summary of findings is replete with examples of the Evaluation Committee of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) bending over backwards to justify not strictly applying the evaluation criteria to Tepui’s bid. One of the key requirements was for Tepui to have had prior experience with a project similar to a pump station. It did not have this and readily admitted it.
However, when questioned by the PPC, the NPTAB said that the work done by Tepui in the less than a year it was in existence was similar to what was required for a pump station.
The PPC noted that Evaluation Criteria No. 8, required the awarded contractor to: “Demonstrate specific construction experience by providing copies of contracts with previous clients that show the bidder has completed one (1) project of similar nature within the past five (5) years. (Similar projects shall include pump stations, sluices and drainage structures)” [emphasis re Bidding Documents].
The PPC said that the record before it reflects that Tepui submitted two contracts under this criterion heading: a contract between it and Hadi’s World Inc. dated March 27th, 2023, for the construction of a concrete wharf at Providence, and a contract between it and the Central Housing and Planning Authority dated February 24th, 2023, for the upgrading of roads in Block 3, Great Diamond.
Further, the List of Current Projects submitted by Tepui under Evaluation Criteria No. 14, gave the status of the aforesaid projects at the time of the bid submission (June 2023) as 30% and 20% completed, respectively.
The commission noting that the works for which the contracts were submitted by Tepui were neither for a “pump station, sluice and or drainage structure” as specified in the Evaluation Criteria nor were any, by Tepui’s own admission, completed, also as required by the Evaluation Criteria, wrote to the NPTAB by on February 6th, 2024 and requested clarification as to the basis on which the Evaluation Committee deemed Tepui as responsive to the said criterion No. 8.
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Guyana
Whenever challenged about its longstanding nemesis, corruption, the preferred refrain from the ruling PPP/C is always for the claimant to present the evidence. That ruse has been employed as the PPP/C has been well aware that such evidence is difficult to come by and that many who could speak are too spineless or intimidated. Forty-four months into the life of this administration evidence is certainly now available in the report of the Public Procurement Commission’s (PPC) summary of findings based on a complaint lodged by APNU+AFC Member of Parliament David Patterson.
It has taken six months for the PPC to complete its task but its Summary of Findings, Tender No. 166/2023/21 should be required reading for President Irfaan Ali. In it he will find stark evidence of how the evaluation committee of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) violated many of the guidelines attached to the invitation for bids for the Belle Vue Pump Station so that the award could be made to Tepui Inc, one of whose principals is Mikhail Rodrigues better known as Guyanese Critic.
Tepui was required to have had the experience of having completed one project of a similar nature within the past five years. Similar projects, the relevant guideline said, “shall include pump stations, sluices and drainage structures”. Having been incorporated less than a year before, Tepui did not have these qualifications, yet the evaluation committee of the NPTAB found its bid to be responsive.
The summary of findings said that Tepui itself submitted as part of its tender, a letter addressed to the procuring agency, National Drainage and Irrigation Authority dated June 13th, 2023, under the hand of “Winston Martindale, Director” captioned “Record of Past Work Experience” in which it stated – “Our company was registered in August 2022 and has now commenced the process of bidding for projects, hence we do not have any past work experience but our team of personnel have years of experience under upgrading and rehabilitation of roads as indicated on their respective resumes.”
Tepui also did not provide a bank line of credit. It provided a line of credit issued by Puran Bros. Later a letter of credit issued by Caricom General Insurance Company appeared but this also was ineligible.
Tepui did not submit – as required – an audited financial statement as it was not in existence for a year.
In terms of equipment requirements, Tepui, the summary of findings said, did not show evidence of three pieces of equipment. It also fell short of its bid security requirement.
In any other well-ordered jurisdiction, Tepui’s bid would be immediately ruled out. One wonders how that bid was let in but many others rejected.
Why would an evaluation committee of the NPTAB favour Tepui and Mr Rodrigues? That answer probably lies in the fact that Mr Rodrigues has presented himself to the public as somebody well-connected to the government and perhaps the government wants him to have a contract. In several editorials and news items about the farcical award of the pump station contract to Tepui this newspaper has pointed out Mr Rodrigues’ ease of access to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and other signs of his connectedness to officialdom. So if an evaluation committee improperly favoured Mr Rodrigues it would likely be on signals from those in authority.
In its response to the PPC’s questions, the NPTAB also introduced the artifice of “leniency” in consideration of bids in utter contravention of the extant guidelines.
“The decisions regarding bid evaluation were consistent with past practices, where leniency was extended to bidders lacking direct pump station construction experience but demonstrating proficiency in similar projects”, said the NPTAB which then added most unbelievably, “Upholding principles of fairness, transparency, and accountability, NPTAB assures of its commitment to maintaining integrity and professionalism in procurement processes”.
No further evidence is needed of corruption under this government as it relates to the massive public expenditure programme that is administrated by the NPTAB. There should be a criminal investigation of the conduct of the evaluation committee, an immediate pulling of the files associated with this tender so that the police can probe the circumstances under which other bids were disallowed and the board of the NPTAB and its senior leadership should be removed immediately, a task that would be left to the President and/or the Ministry of Finance. Needless to say, the Tepui contract should be immediately cancelled.
It was not only Tepui that was favourably looked at even though unqualified. The NPTAB had the gumption to advise the PPC that a precedent had been set by the award of similar pump station contracts to others who also did not have the requisite experience. It cited the construction of a pump station at Devonshire Castle, Region Two which was awarded to Samaroo Investments and the Den Amstel pump station in Region Three to JR Ranch Inc. J/V GSK Excavation Services. The Pouderoyen pump station also falls into this category although there was no mention of this by the NPTAB.
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Guyana
The Regional Administration of Region Seven breached the Procurement Act of 2003 when it awarded $22 million in contracts without public tendering, the Auditor General’s report of 2023 revealed.
The contract awards surpassed the legal limit of $3million.
According to the Auditor General, the regulations made under the Procurement Act 2003 – Amendment of Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 to the Principal Regulations, Item 2, stipulates that “The threshold foreseen in section 27(1) of the Act for use of the request for quotations method of procurement shall be $3,000,000.”
However, upon examination, the Audit Office discovered that the Regional Administration expended amounts totaling $22.969 million for the supply of dietary supplies for D.C Caesar Fox Secondary Dormitory through the processing of four Payment Vouchers.
“The Regional Democratic Council (RDC) breached the aforementioned regulations since the three-quote method of procurement was utilised. These purchases should have been publicly advertised and adjudicated by the Regional Tender Board due to the value exceeding the limit of $3M,” the AG pointed out.
Providing a breakdown of the $22 million purchases, the Audit Office detailed that the dietary supplies including flour, sugar, milk, blackeye peas, and butter among others were bought for $5,626,000.
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Jamaica
ST JAMES, Jamaica — Senior law lecturer at Bangor University in Wales, Dr Ama Eyo, is calling for more sustainable procurement practices that shun corruption, bribery and collusion.
According to Dr Eyo, research shows that an estimated 10 to 20 per cent of the entire money spent on public procurement globally is wasted on bribery and corruption and only 2.81 per cent of contracts are publicly reported.
“When you are utilising the procurement system under procurement law this should not be practised… what we’re doing today around empowerment, training and development of expertise should go a long way in changing the mental well-being on how we look at the impact of corruption on procurement and it should give you some control to resist those unethical practices,” Dr Eyo was quoted as highlighting in a release from the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
She was delivering a lecture on day three of the Elevate Procurement Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James on Thursday.
The three-day conference was held under the theme, ‘Elevate: Innovate, Create’ and hosted over 500 attendees, comprising suppliers of goods, services and works, public procurement oversight institutions, and international and regional procurement practitioners, among others.
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The Bahamas
FINANCIAL Secretary Simon Wilson rebuffed a claim in the United States’ latest human rights report that The Bahamas is failing to effectively implement laws related to contracts and procurement.
The report said the country has limited enforcement of conflict-of-interest and anti-corruption clauses in government contracts.
Mr Wilson said that the government has made improvements to fulfil its obligations under the Public Procurement Act.
“I think the procurement reform is an ongoing process,” he said yesterday on the sidelines of an event launching Cloud Bahamas.
“We have made great strides in procurement reform. Obviously, it’s not a flat standard, and each country and each situation is different.”
Mr Wilson said of the US report: “That’s a very broad statement, not reflective of the efforts we have made in terms of procurement reform.
I will say they will have to provide more specifics on that.
“We are a very small country, so obviously it’s very hard to have people unrelated in this country.
“They have to provide specific examples where there was a clear conflict of interest where the government didn’t act.”
Critics have repeatedly criticised the government for lacking transparency over procurement processes and awards. The financial secretary said the frequency of contract award reporting has increased, adding that full compliance will contribute to transparency.
He noted that the government aims to ensure that all agencies use the GoBonfire online portal to bid and award procurement deals.
“I will say that procurement compliance is a work in progress. We are more compliant than we were two years ago. In a year’s time, we will be more compliant,” he added.
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