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Auditor General’s sole sourcing report delayed by “tardy” Tender Board responses
Auditor General (AG), Deodat Sharma, has said that his report on value for money as it relates to drug contracts and other controversial public contracts has been delayed by a number of hiccups.
Auditor General, Deodat Sharma
Some of these, he said, are “tardy” responses to questions posed to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board by the Audit Office.
However, after being apprised of the AG’s comments, Head of the Tender Administration Board, Donald De Clou, said, “I am not aware of that. But I will look into it. If there is competition between my time for my work and something that an external agency wants, then my work comes first.”
On Wednesday, the AG said that his report will most definitely be finished before the year ends. “It will be laid in Parliament either on or before the next sitting of the National Assembly.”
He said that as it relates to its investigations on the Amaila Falls Hydro Project and the Hope Canal Project, the findings of the Audit Office will be incorporated into his 2013 report on the Public Accounts of the country.
In September 2012, the AG had announced that he was finalizing a report on some of the most controversial Government contracts which his department was investigating. But two years later, the Parliament has not received this report.
Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Carl Greenidge, said that the Auditor General should not have taken two years to complete that process. The politician said that the matter should have been dealt with expeditiously and as such, at the last meeting of the committee on Monday, he asked for an update on what has become of the report and why there was a delay.
Greenidge said that he had a brief discussion with the AG about the report, and he was informed that there were a few setbacks but that the report is expected to be completed soon.
Sharma had said that he was looking into the controversial projects of his own volition since he is responsible for auditing all public projects. These include the Amaila Falls road project and the Hope Canal project on East Coast Demerara.
As it relates specifically to the procurement of drugs, the political opposition has said on several occasions that Government had not adhered to the rules of sole sourcing. The single source method is in Section 28 of the Procurement Act 2003.
It says that for single sourcing to take place, it must be a case where the goods are available only from a particular supplier or contractor, or a particular supplier or contractor has exclusive rights with respect to the goods and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists.
As in the case of the procurement of drugs, the opposition had said that the pre qualification requirements were changed to such an “unreasonable” extent that it forces only one person or company to qualify to supply pharmaceuticals.
That company is the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC), owned by former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s best friend, Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop.
Under the revised criteria for the pre-qualification of suppliers of drugs and medical supplies, the bidders must demonstrate a gross turnover of $1B (US$5M) and net assets of $500M (US$2.5M).
One of the Ministry’s criteria is that maximum score will be awarded to applicants who have paid $50M in corporate taxes annually.
The company with 50 or more employees, and warehousing capacity of 30,000 square feet in the city, will also gain an edge.
New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (GPC) is the only supplier, locally, with its own bond of that size.
According to the revised prequalification criteria, maximum points will also be awarded in the evaluation process to the applicants who have been supplying Government for more than seven years without any negative reports.
A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU), Shadow Minister of Health, Dr. George Norton, said that potential distributors are at an absolute disadvantage due to the government practice of overlooking the bidding process.
Even the Auditor General report in several instances focused on multi-million-dollar deficiencies in the procurement and supply of products from the New GPC.
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