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Evaluating Officers must sign a confidentiality declaration – Edghill
By Keeran Danny
Mounting an offensive to decimate the threat and perception of corruption within Government agencies was the challenge posed to public officers involved in the procurement process by Junior Finance Minister Juan Edghill.
Edghill was at the time delivering remarks at the opening ceremony of the Evaluators’ Workshop held at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Pattensen, East Coast Demerara, yesterday. Among the gathering of public officers were Permanent Secretaries and Regional Executive Officers.
Participants at the opening ceremony of the Evaluators’ Workshop.
Setting the tone of the workshop, Edghill touched on areas that need urgent implementation to help reduce public perception of corruption, which undermines good governance and reduces competitiveness.
He said that with immediate effect all Evaluating Officers must sign a confidentiality declaration before the evaluation of bids starts. Explaining the rationale behind this step, Edghill said that there have been instances where even before the Chairman of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board receives evaluation reports on the bids, some contractors are already knowledgeable as to the awardees.
Edghill said that though this measure may appear superficial, it is important that in event there are breaches the document would be used to hold the officer(s) accountable.
The next measure to be put in place with immediate effect is the signing of a conflict of interest declaration by Evaluating Officers. He stated that this would give evaluators the opportunity to withdraw themselves from bids that would appear to be conflicts of interest.
“The declaration would avoid doubts and enable evaluators to perform their duties objectively.” Edghill said that he believes this is done in international agencies, specifically the European Union. As such, where there are best practices Guyana must duplicate, he said.
According to Edghill, all evaluators and senior officials whose portfolios are referred to in the Integrity Act, must file their returns in a timely manner. This must be across the board at every agency.
The implementation of the aforementioned would help reduce the perception of corruption and allow Government to say that public officers have taken the high moral ground, the Minister emphasized.
He charged that the more transparent the process, efficiency, competitiveness and the concept of value for money are promoted. In addition, transparency would put to rest some fears and suspicions regarding the decision-making process. For instance, advertisement of projects to all is very important in the transparency procedure.
According to Edghill, during a similar workshop last year, information obtained was informative and instructive, causing Government to look to strengthen systems. However, the system is faced with the culture of persons making irresponsible statements without facts.
Also during that workshop the format for the standard bidding document was launched. However, usage of that document posed some limitation and the Minister requested that the Regional Executive Officers, in particular, should ensure more details in some bid documents when necessary.
The Minister said that the Evaluating Officers should pay attention to detail and execute their duties efficiently. This resulted from reports that some officers are not carrying out their duties and are allowing the senior officers to do the evaluation of the bids.
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