Guyana
The recent award of a $865M contract to construct a Pump Station at Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara, has once again called into question the criteria used by National Tender Board in awarding such large contracts.
Opposition Member of Parliament, David Patterson has already written to the Public Procurement Commission asking for a probe into the award of the multimillion-dollar contract, pointing out that the company that has been awarded the contract has not met the requirements set out by the same tender agency.
Patterson said a bigger challenge to the contract may be examined.
“I know of one contractor who tried to engage the Public Procurement Commission and got nowhere, and went to the Courts. So, I do reckon that that is the route we have to go if the Public Procurement Commission wants to continue to be partisan and non-functional, we will have to resort to the Court,” Mr. Patterson said,
He acknowledged that the Court process might be time consuming, but it will ultimately expose the inconsistency and interference in the procurement process.
In his estimation, corruption together with internal party politics seems to be dominating the procurement landscape in Guyana.
Patterson said the Procurement Commission has certainly not been following the Procurement Act.
He said persons with no prior construction experience are now being handed multi-million-dollar contracts, based solely on their closeness to the Government.
The Government has been sidestepping questions on many of the large contracts being handed out, while making known that the tender process is being followed and the rules adhered to.
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Bahamas
THE government is still not complying with the Public Procurement Act’s requirement to be transparent about contract awards, with Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis saying this should change before the end of the year.
The law requires the government to disclose the name and address of winning bidders, the procuring entity, the procurement selection method and the award amount within 60 days of the contract award.
However, since assuming office, the Davis administration has failed to do this. The Minnis administration was voted out of office around the time the original procurement law came into force.
Financial Secretary Simon Wilson has said the government would publicise contract awards when the reporting capacity of its procurement system, the GoBonfire eProcurement Platform, improves.
In February, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the Ministry of Finance was finalising a report listing contracts awarded by the government since the Progressive Liberal Party won the election. Nearly eight months later, the report has still not been released.
During a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday, Mr Halkitis said much work was required to make the Public Procurement Act work.
“For example, the appointment of a chief procurement, the training of procurement committees not only in the Ministry of Finance but in every single ministry and government agency,” he said.
“We are talking about acquiring IT and getting people trained up on it and so that is what we have been doing for the last 18 months.”
“I would just like to say there is never any sort of desire or intention to circumvent, but it’s very, very easy to go into Parliament and pass a law and say we are doing this and we are doing that.
“You know, we see it with a number of pieces of legislation where we have to go back. I can point to one that we had, which is when we changed the Department of Statistics to the Bahamas National Statistical Institution.
“It had some very good provisions in there, but it also had a lot of provisions that required monetary outlay, training, and amendments to other pieces of legislation. So, you know, it’s good, people say, ‘okay you publish it and you get transparency’. Yes, we agree, but at the end of it, there are lot of requirements that we had to do.”
In July, Bahamas Contractors Association President Leonard Sands said notifying the public about contract awards is not as complicated as government officials suggest.
“Somebody,” he said, “had to sign a document. You know exactly who that person was who signed it, okay? All of the things they tell you are garbage responses to their intention to willfully hide information from the public.”
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Guyana
The Government of Guyana announced that more than 20 companies have submitted bids to compete for a contract to market the country’s share of oil production.
Among the bidders are Exxon Mobil.
The 12-month contract, which allows the country to export its portion of crude produced offshore by a consortium led by Exxon, had in previous years been awarded to Shell.
Guyana’s National Procurement and Tender Administration Board is expected to shortlist bidders soon.
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Barbados
Minister of Environment and National Beautification Adrian Forde on Tuesday sought to clear up anomalies regarding procurement at the National Conservation Commission (NCC) report that were flagged by Auditor General Leigh Trotman
At the same time, he assured that steps were being taken to ensure that procurement laws and regulations were followed.
In a press conference at the ministry’s headquarters in Warrens, St Michael, Minister Forde told the media he had to set the record straight about some of the findings of the 2022 Auditor General Report which had been a topic of national debate.
“It is important to get the facts right and a lot of times the facts are put out there and they are distorted for whatever reason. So, I just want to come today to give Barbadians the facts as it relates to the incident that happened at the NCC and invariably speak about the Auditor General’s report. That has been on the lips of a lot of Barbadians over the last couple of days and I feel it necessary to correct some of the distortion that I see out there as it relates to the facts,” he said.
In the report, Trotman highlighted the procurement and payment for services provided to the NCC during the January 1 to December 31, 2022 period.
It was stated that a company was paid approximately $1 553 402 over a ten-month period – January to October 2022 – to perform grease trap and septic well cleaning across NCC facilities.
However, the minister explained that on December 9, 2022, he wrote to his permanent secretary about a report that was brought to him by the chairman of the NCC board. Forde said the document identified some anomalies in terms of accounting and procedures and he requested that it be sent to the Director of Finance and Economic Affairs.
He added that the permanent secretary then wrote to the Auditor General and asked that an investigation of the report be conducted.
Quoting a paragraph from Section 4 of the report, Forde said: “There was no evidence of a competitive selection process for the services by these entities and, as a result, there was no way to determine if the rates were the best value for money. For example, only one entity was used by NCC to clean grease traps and provide other cleaning services at various parks and recreational areas. This entity was paid over $300 000 between January and December 2022 for this service.”
He said a subsequent special audit of the procurement practices of the NCC was done in June 2023 and in that document, the correct figure was highlighted.
“The correct figure, based on the special audit, is $432 641. It was in the special audit report given to the ministry – a far difference from the $1.5 million that is the subject of discussion across the length of Barbados . . . ,” Forde said.
“We don’t live in a perfect world and when mistakes happen we have to admit that mistakes took place. We have to take action to ensure that it does not happen again. The trust the public puts in us, we have to ensure that there is a close connection to that trust and that there is a mandate that seeks to protect that trust.”
Forde said the NCC board of directors had introduced a series of measures in January.
“We have ensured that the requisite provisions which govern government procurement under the Public Finance Management Act are followed at all times,” he said.
“The board has begun the process of identifying a new accounting system because in the special audit, the Auditor General stated that a review of the information by the accounts’ personnel to the auditors revealed that there were a number of errors in the information presented within the board’s report [and] in some instances, records for invoices were replicated – that is, their totals were included more than once, thereby resulting in the inflated amount of $1 553 402.”
Last Friday, in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY, NCC general manager Ryan Als challenged the Auditor General’s 2022 report stating that some of the issues and figures highlighted were incorrect such as the $1.5 million payment and the NCC using a company owned by a supervisor to assist in the national 360 cleaning programme.
Forde also supported what Als said as it relates to the cleaning programme.
Regarding the grease trap services and other cleaning the NCC does to maintain the kiosks and restaurants at some of the island’s beaches and recreational facilities, Als said a fee of around $100 was introduced last month.
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Jamaica
Member of Parliament for Manchester North Western Mikael Phillips says the tedious procurement process has resulted in delays to well-needed projects at times, causing the scope of work to be increased due to infrastructure deterioration.
“I mean the process itself is cumbersome and the rules governing procurement. You have those that are recurring budgets and those that are capital expenditures that come in the budget book,” he told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday.
Phillips pointed to the Public Investment Appraisal Branch (formerly the Public Investment Management Secretariat) (PIAB) is a branch of the Public Expenditure Division (PEX), which supports the Public Investment Management System (PIMS) by providing technical support and advice to the Public Investment Management Committee (PIMC), thereby facilitating effective pre-investment decision-making.
“With recurrent project expenditure, you know that the time frame for any project that is going to procurement is anywhere between six months to one year and it is just the guidelines that have been set out by the Ministry of Finance. With those that come through the capital, just like the Troy Bridge, has now to go through the PIAB of the Ministry of Finance,” said Phillips.
Since the Troy Bridge collapsed in August 2021, schoolchildren and other residents have been using makeshift methods, including a fallen tree and a zipline comprising a rope and bucket to cross the river. The risky makeshift footbridge connects residents in the neighbouring communities of Cowick Park in north-western Manchester to Troy in southern Trelawny. Since the bridge collapsed, residents have had to use a 15-mile alternative commute for safety.
“That [PIAB] in itself takes quite a while when you read the handbook governing that. In essence, when you have a project and let us take, for example, the $40 million that each constituency got to do some roadworks in December, it is just now that the bulk of the constituencies are seeing any work being done,” explained Phillips.
He pointed to constraints in dealing with the National Works Agency (NWA).
“Despite NWA will say that there are too many contracts that it had to prepare, but then the procurement process itself for each of these contracts took anywhere between four months going close to eight months now,” said Phillips.
Phillips, who is also Opposition spokesperson on roads and works, said the delays result in cost overruns for projects.
“When you take so long, by the time that you get those resources to do the work that needs to be done, the costs would have increased in material, labour and the scope, if it is like a wall, because the situation has got worse and then when you go to the agency they are telling you that they have no more resources,” he said.
“If there is to be any additional resources then it slows down the project,” he added.
He suggested that there is a perception that every politician is a “thief”.
“… And they start out with that in making the requirement so cumbersome that it hinders progress and just proper delivery of projects itself,” said Phillips
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