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Entire Tender Board to be sacked – Govt.

Jun 12, 2015 News

Government yesterday announced that it has started sweeping changes to its procurement systems to bring back confidence and reduce corruption in state contracts.
One of the first moves includes the appointment of an entirely new Board of Directors for the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), the body that assesses tenders for state contracts.
Already, the Finance Ministry, under Minister Winston Jordan, has submitted proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers on changes that are expected.
Speaking to media houses in his first post-Cabinet press conference, Minister of State Joseph Harmon disclosed, that the idea of the clean-up has been a major source of concern for the Opposition under the last Government.
A new board will only be part of the changes. The current one is headed by Chairman, Donald De Clou with the offices located in the Ministry of Finance compound, Main Street.
Already, the new administration has clamped down on the use of “sole sourcing”, a procurement process where a single contractor is used over others.
Harmon said that he has several applications on his desk from ministries and other agencies.
“I have told them no, that we will not go that route.”
The official said that under the previous administration, there is clear evidence that sole sourcing was “pervasive”, for the procurement of “from small to big things”.
The abuse of a three-quote system, where state agencies and ministries would take three quotations from companies for services or supplies, is also being reviewed.
The procurement issue has indeed been a major one in recent years. Contractors have been complaining of being sidelined for others, with questions raised over the seemingly high engineers’ estimates and bills of quantities.
It was widely believed that the system was crooked. There have also been accusations of insider knowledge being leveraged by contractors.
But previous Governments have been slow in addressing the concerns.
The practice of sole sourcing has also heavily criticized, especially after it became known that one particular company, New GPC, owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, a close friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, benefitted from billions of dollars in drug contracts for years now.
The former Opposition, now in a coalition Government following recent elections, argued that the sole sourcing procurement as was being practised, was being abused as under regulations it was only supposed to be for cases where the services or products were not available elsewhere.
Recently, the US Charge d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Guyana, Bryan Hunt, said that sole sourcing in the country’s procurement process is something that his Government would like to see stopped.
An under-pressure Government had allowed media houses to be present at the opening of tenders every Tuesday, but details from the actual assessment of contracts have not been easily forthcoming.
The establishment of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) that would have overseen the award of state contracts has been dragging on now for a number of years.
It was being actively discussed in the last Parliament, but halted after the Parliament was prematurely ended and elections called.
The new administration has promised to make the PPC a priority in the current Parliament which was opened on Wednesday.

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