GPL consultancy procurement riddled with violations, failures – Goolsarran
Guyana
GPL violated the Procurement Act in relation to a consultancy to oversee the new power distribution network for the Wales Gas-to-Energy (GtE) Plant, former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran says.
“Method4 Engineering stated that it never received any word on the contract award for the gas-to-energy project consultancy, and only learnt through the media last month that it was selected as far back as January 2025. If this was indeed so, then the procuring entity, in this case the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc, would have violated Section 39 of the Procurement Act,” Goolsarran told the Sta-broek Business as he also questioned the blackout on information regarding the contract from both the procuring entity and government. Controversy also erupted over the planned award to a Dominican Republic company, InterEnergy via sole sourcing.
Goolsarran said that questions such as – was Method4evaluated on the basis of its local operations could answer if it had or not met the experience requirement.
Government, GPL, and the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), continue to remain mum on the details of the procurement
Chapter 39 of the Procurement Act which the former Auditor General referred to is summarised as follows: All tenders received from contractors or suppliers following the bid opening are required to be submitted to the Evaluation Committee appointed by the National Pro-curement and Tender Adminis-tration Board (NPTAB). The Committee then evaluates each tender and determines which tenderer has submitted the lowest evaluated bid, using only the evaluation criteria outlined in the tender documents. Having done so, the Evaluation Committee must convey its recommendation to the procuring entity [in this case the Guyana Power and Light Inc] within14 days.
Up to Tuesday August 26, Method4 told this newspaper that it had no formal word from GPL or anyone, regarding the tender.
Company Director, Adit Ganpat, said that there has been “nothing new” as he informed that he was also putting together a three-part response on the issue that would include a company profile, his profile, and details of the tender.
He earlier this month had told Stabroek News that he only learned through the media last month that the company had been selected in January this year for the gas-to-energy project consultancy as from the time it placed its bid in January of this year, it had never received any word on the contract award.
“We had no communication. We were not told we won the contract, nor told we did not win the work… we never heard anything officially. All the information we had on the contract was the one you got at the same time… in the media,” the Guyanese Canadian engineer had said.
“… We thought it is a budget thing because of maybe elections because we know a lot of these things [projects] go on standstill. So we were just kind of waiting and respecting the client’s process,” he added.
Method4 Engineering came under the spotlight when the government said that the company did not have the expertise for what it had bid for and that an agreement had been arrived at with the Dominican Republic company – InterEnergy, via sole sourcing.
Goolsarran has said that the planned award by GPL of the contract to InterEnergy Group (IEG), is in violation of this country’s Procurement Act and raises serious transparency questions that government should answer.
And since it was NPTAB that recommended the award of the contract to Method4, Goolsarran said that the matter raises the important question regarding the competence of that body and the Evaluation Committees appointed to assess proposals received.
GPL should also clarify and take blame for forwarding a faulty contract to Cabinet for its no-objection in the first place, Goolsarran posited as he gave an analysis of the controversial award.
GPL wrote to NPTAB on June 2 this year, requesting the annulment of the US$9 million tender to Method4 for consultancy works to supervise the distribution networks project, the Board told the Sunday Stabroek. The utility company also told NPTAB that it was in the process of seeking permission to sole source the contract.
The timeline would put the power company’s action a little over one week after advising Prime Minister Mark Phillips who had told the National Assembly that the contract had been awarded to Method4, to the tune of US$7 million.
When Stabroek News reached out to NPTAB about its role in the contract, it responded by saying that it had received a letter from GPL dated June 2, 2025 asking for the annulment of the award by NPTAB evaluators and that the utility company was in the process of seeking sole sourcing.
This newspaper understands that the utility company had not received a reply to its correspondence.
It is unclear why, for a contract that was opened since January 25 of this year, and for which NPTAB takes three to four weeks to evaluate, that GPL only sought to annul the contract in June and why Method4 was never notified.
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