Jagdeo hints at countrywide prequalification system for procurement
Guyana
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday stated that the strengthening of the procurement system will be continuing in the form of a countrywide prequalifying system allowing the Cabinet to have a full picture about companies bidding for projects.
Homing in on the procurement process at his weekly press conference yesterday following an editorial in Monday’s Stabroek News which said in part that “Yet again, the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) has been found flagrantly violating guidelines for the award of contracts”, Jagdeo said, thousands of contracts are being carried out around the country in the various sectors due to the transformation that is currently ongoing countrywide.
However, he said, that these contracts when completed on time to the benefit of citizens are never focused on instead there seems to be a bias now to focus on a few contracts “the few that may have some issue and make that seem as the prevailing condition.”
This, he said, was something his party faced in the 2015 period as well “when they tried to characterize the People’s Progressive Party as being corrupt and so they are at it again.”
Noting the contents of the Stabroek News editorial, Jagdeo said that he had never seen such a strong position under APNU+AFC’s five years “when there was practically no public tender, when ministers were directly involved in their ministries in giving themselves contracts, there were no public tenders, there was no document to evaluate, there was no evaluation, there was no paper trail so you can’t investigate anything.”
However, he pointed out that for the contracts being highlighted now there is a paper trail, process, and documents to support “every single one of them.”
Notwithstanding this, Jagdeo said that the last thing he would do is put his “neck on the block for evaluators or the probity of every contract in this country”, stressing that “we remain open to ensuring that the process grows in terms of transparency and that we can weed out people who are engaged in corrupt practices.”
According to him, this was done on “several occasions” where they have seen the growth of the system.
Stabroek News’ editorial had noted that one of the tender board’s evaluation committees was found to have awarded a $2.1b Guyana Defence Force (GDF) project to Kares Engineering Inc over a better bidder.
NPTAB
Facing criticism over the award of the GDF project to Kares Inc, the NPTAB yesterday said that the evaluation criterion at the centre of the dispute had been “discontinued years ago” although nobody seemed to have been aware of this.
In recent months, the NPTAB and its evaluation committees have come under close scrutiny over a series of irregular practices which raised concerns about corruption.
After a complaint by Correia and Correia, the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) investigated the natter and found that the award to Kares Inc did not indeed go to the lowest responsive bidder. It also said that the evaluation committee was bound to follow the structure that no bidder below 80% of the engineer’s estimate should be deemed responsive. Despite this, Kares was deemed the winner though the bids of Correia and Correia and S Jagmohan were better.
NPTAB in its statement yesterday said that it had noted the Stabroek News report `GDF $2.1b wharf contract improperly awarded to Kares” dated June 23rd, 2024.
It said that “The Guyana Defence Force advertised for the construction of a Coast Guard reinforced concrete wharf at Ruimveldt and bids were received via public tendering in November 2023. Subsequently bids were evaluated by an independent evaluation committee. The evaluators recommended the lowest responsive bidder and an award was made in December 2023. The contract award for the aforementioned project was published in January 2024 and the Government of Guyana entered into a contract in February 2024, with the bidder who submitted the lowest evaluated bid, which is also the lowest overall bid.”
According to the NPTAB , in March 2024, Correia & Correia Ltd submitted a request for review citing “Any bidder whose bid is less than 80 percent of the engineer’s estimate will be non-responsive”.
The NPTAB said, that it must be noted “that this Engineer’s Estimate was never published or given to the bidders prior to the opening of bids. It must be noted that the criteria cited was discontinued years ago and is not included in the numbered criteria in the approved Standard Bidding Document. Further, any modifications to the criteria in the Standard Bidding Document require prior approval from NPTAB in accordance with Section 23 (3) of the Procurement Act 2003. Additionally, please be advised that the complaint does not align with Section 52 of the Procurement Act 2003.”
It seems that NPTAB is the only party in the process who is aware that this 80% benchmark has been discontinued.
(Table of bids from the Department of Public Information)
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