IDB to Govt: Do more competitive bidding, less single sourcing
A key Inter-American Development report (IDB) has recommended that countries in the region, including Guyana, implement a number of measures aimed at improving public procurement.
The report, titled ‘Better spending for better lives: How Latin America and the Caribbean can do more with less’, has identified poor procurement practices as a contributor to wasted public funds.
Among its recommendations for countries in the region are for governments to avoid single sourced contracts and concentrate on competitive bidding. In fact, it was advised that open tendering be the default method of procurement.
“Use competitive and efficient tendering and limit the use of exceptions and single source procurement,” the report states. “Use open tendering as the default method and modern tools (such as) framework agreements, electronic catalogues and reverse auctions for standardised products.”
In addition, the report advises that governments in the region publish annual procurement plans, as part of a comprehensive framework that would set out the Government’s goals and priority areas.
“Publishing annual procurement plans increases accountability of contracting authorities, as they need to justify diverging from the plan,” the report points out, attributing this piece of advice to the European Commission.
The report also advises that all stages of public procurement, including all Government personnel involved in the process, be brought under a centralised procurement agency. And while Guyana does have a National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), the report also advises that this agency oversee and promote training of personnel.
Single sourcing
Over the past few years, Guyana has been plagued with instances of single sourced contracts. One instance in particular is a contract for which Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson sought permission from Cabinet to single source. That transaction is now engaging the attention of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).
The contract in question was awarded to Dutch company, LievenseCSO, for a feasibility study into the new Demerara River bridge. The parliamentary Opposition had requested that the Public Procurement Commission investigate the award of the $148 million sole sourced contract.
In its report on the matter, the Commission flagged Minister Patterson for requesting from Cabinet that the contract be sole sourced… instead of being processed through the Procurement Board, as stipulated by law.
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