Reject “dishonest” supervising consultants – says engineer

May 25, 2014 News

Frustrated with the fact that “dishonest” supervising consultants do not face penalties for approving slapdash work, an engineer and A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon, have said that applications by the said consultants for government contracts should be rejected.

Joseph Harmon, APNU’s Shadow Minister of Public Works

The engineer said that in the absence of the necessary laws which would stipulate the penalties for supervising consultants when they are found to be signing off on shoddy work, their applications to work for other arms of the government should be discarded.
Though this has not been done before, when one considers the millions of taxpayers’ dollars that would have to be wasted to correct the mistakes of the supervising consultants; it becomes imperative that some form of blacklisting be implemented.
The Engineer explained that every contractor enters into an agreement or contractual promise on how a particular job must be done. If those specified articles are not met, the employer would carry out on his promise to enforce certain penalties drafted in the signed agreement.
However, the engineer said that supervising consultants have been allowed to “literally get away with murder. They don’t face any punishment when they sign off on shoddy work. They are allowed to continue to work for another arm of the government or even on a project given by the same company. This has to stop.”
The learned engineer said, “The contractor would enter into a written agreement and the content of that would stipulate certain special conditions, scope of services to be provided among other conditions.
The consultant now would ensure that the contractor delivers on everything he signed on to in the contract. But if the consultant notices that the contractor is not doing the work as he should he can reject the work of the contractor and have the contractor to correct it. However, once the employer can prove that the consultant has signed off on or approved sloppy work he can be rejected in the future.
“In fact he should be rejected. Some form of blacklisting in this case could be employed. I have never heard of any supervising consultant being blacklisted but of course once they are found doing that they should be blacklisted.
“However, Government is supposed to have mechanisms in the contract to take care of lapses by the consultant. I would support the call to have penalties for these consultants.”
A Partnership for National Unity’s Shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon said that he is in full agreement with blacklisting consultants.
He said that as a prelude to blacklisting, the international organizations that provide loans and grants must accept part of the responsibility for slapdash work done by contractors since they set the pre qualification requirements.
The Member of Parliament said, “For too long there has been disregard for the quality of works in the public infrastructure area. The problem is that we get poor work and the contractor and consultant are paid. Yet as a nation we have to pay back the full loan. It is an unfair burden on the backs of present and future generations of Guyanese.
“The government engineer should be commended for standing up in this manner.”
Harmon said that consultants must know from now that the APNU administration will not accept this state of affairs.
He added, “If the government was working in the interest of the people, the gravy train of these contracts would have been out of steam by now but the fact of the matter is that the government officials directly benefit from this ridiculous situation.”
The issue of inferior work by contractors was also an area of focus at a recent forum which was attended by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh. The Minister agreed as well that supervising consultants should also be held accountable for sloppy work done by contractors.
Dr. Singh expressed that there is need for serious consideration of mechanisms that will make the supervising consultancy firms more responsible.
But the Opposition, particularly the Alliance For Change, have said that the situation underscores the urgent need for a functioning Public Procurement Commission (PPC), a constitutional body that is empowered to overlook public contracts.
Dr. Singh noted, however, that Government’s hands are tied as the consultants are essentially the “ears and eyes” for their employer.
He reportedly said that the reality is that there are not any known mechanisms to penalize the consultants and that the absence of measures makes it difficult to blacklist consultants and they are time and again allowed to make bids for other contracts.