PNCR calls on Govt. to publish names of contractors

Sep 14, 2008 News

— accuses the Jagdeo Administration of corruption

The People’s National Congress Reform has accused the Government of awarding substantial contracts to individuals and companies without publishing their names.

At a press conference held on Thursday, the party stated that there must be a major political reason for the adoption of this approach for the award of contracts.

“This is not difficult to discern, since the Jagdeo Administration continues to award substantial contracts to its cronies and is, therefore, reluctant to publish their names in the media,” the PNCR stated.

As a consequence, the party noted, the Guyanese people cannot determine whether contracts are being awarded in an equitable manner, or whether political considerations predominate.

The PNCR is urging that, in the interest of transparency, the Government should ensure that the names of the individuals and companies are published when contracts are awarded in the future.

According to the party, the Jagdeo Administration has repeatedly said that it believes in transparency and accountability when it comes to the awarding of contracts, but in this, as in other matters, its behaviour belies its utterances.

The PNCR said that it is evident that the Jagdeo PPP/C Administration does not wish for there to be any effective National Assembly oversight of its public procurement practices.

“The PNCR draws attention to the continued resistance of the Administration to the efforts to establish the constitutionally mandated Public Procurement Commission and to ensure that the Office of the Auditor General is fully autonomous and urgently provided with the resources to conduct value for money audits.”
Executive member of the party, Aubrey Norton, said that there needs to be a total revamp in the way in which the Government deals with contracts.

According to Norton, the party has called for a listing of the contracts as the PNCR believes that there is corruption within the Government structure.

“There is evidence emerging that companies are allocated jobs that do not exist and the money is utilized, and when you go out there and check…and the PNCR, I can tell you personally, I am in possession of information… including photographs of two buildings in a part of Region 10 where monies are collected and works are supposed to be completed, but when you check, the work is not completed, and so you are living in a society in which corruption is the mark of Government, and it will be no different in the region or in the Central Government,” Norton said.

He added that persons have to recognize that the Government will deal with the issues in that way because they do not want the actual contractors to be removed, since many of them are politically linked and have phony companies, and many of them are not competent to do the job.

“But what do you expect in a country where a contractor does a bad job and, because he has political affiliation and corrupt links, he gets another contract?” Norton questioned. He noted that the administration is creating the fertile conditions for corruption.

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