Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Ramotar upset with non establishment of Public Procurement Commission
…says where corruption exists it must be weeded out
General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party, Donald Ramotar, says that he is very disappointed and upset that the Public Procurement Commission is yet to be established and be fully functional.
According to Ramotar, the motive behind that body and the Tender Board process was all meant to weed out corruption and get value for money as it relates to spending taxpayers’ money.
While conceding that the government has an open policy toward tenders and contracts that are public in that anyone could access, there are cases where there is subversion of the process, “but this has to be rooted out.”
PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar
“If some of that (prevention measures) is being subverted, we have to deal with that… the PPP try to establish systems to ensure that we minimise corruption.”
Ramotar was adamant that his party “does not benefit from corrupt money or any money that contractors benefit from.”
According to Ramotar, “I do realise that sometimes contractors do shoddy work and sometimes even some of them might be involved in corruption.”
He said that it was his party that sought to introduce measures to fight corruption, adding that prior to the PPP’s assent to office, there was no such thing as a Tender Board.
He said that the intention of the Tender Board was to get value for money. “That was the whole intention but I must admit that there is a possibility that some of these things have been subverted.”
As it relates to contactors inflating bids and still getting contracts, Ramotar said that the issue cannot be dealt with generally rather, “you have to deal with these things individually.”
He said that the systems that were put in place are not bad but none of them took into consideration the collaboration between contractors and engineers among others.
As it relates to the Public Procurement Commission, Ramotar recalled that he was involved in the initial period when a decision was taken to set up the commission. “We were eager to have it function and took decisions as to how to set it up.”
He recalled that there was the proposal to both sides of the National Assembly to submit five names, but unfortunately, finding common ground has not been possible to date.
Ramotar was adamant however that the, “first breakdown of talks was not from us.”
The usual differences of opinion between the government and the People’s National Congress Reform is what led to the delay in the resubmission of the administration’s nominees for the Public Procurement Commission.
This is according to President Bharrat Jagdeo, who earlier this year told media operatives that some years ago, three nominees were submitted but there was a huge debate on the candidates and as such the process was put on pause.
After all the nominees are submitted, the committee will use a grading method to select the most qualified for appointment to the commission and it will be constituted of five persons.
The role of this commission includes the monitoring and reviewing of all public procurement systems. It also monitors the performance of procurement bodies. In such cases, the adherence to regulations in procuring services and the execution of works is examined.
It also has responsibility over the procedures of ministerial, regional and national procurement entities as well as those of project execution units.
The commission also has the task of investigating complaints from contractors and public enterprises along with suppliers, and cases of irregularities. It has the authority to propose remedial action in all instances.
The Constitution stipulates that the commission should be independent, impartial and should discharge its functions fairly.
In January to April 2007, the Ethnic Relations Commission conducted research into the public procurement activity in Guyana over the four-month period. A summary of the findings from that report, states that the commission be established in order that its functions can be removed from the ambit of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.
It also suggested that the mode of creation and manner of oversight of the Tender Board is qualitatively different from those constitutionally provided for the Public Procurement Commission. The provisions in the Procurement Act regarding a declaration of interest, the report stated, appear to omit requirement of a written statement signed by the declarant.
The ERC proposed that this omission be addressed with a view to enhancing the objective of the Act.
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