This so-called project should be investigated thoroughly

Jul 03, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
Please allow me space in your Newspaper to offer my views on the above-mentioned news item. I support Minister Harmon‘s contention that the project should have been advertised in order to attract tenders. Further, the public should have been privy to each step of the tender process, culminating in the award of the tender. This, in part, means that whatever the services rendered, there should not only have been a need for the service (implying that it should have been a part of the receiving Ministries‘plan and budget for this year) but that the recipient of the tender award should have been duly qualified and certified to provide that service. There should therefore be paperwork to support all aspects of the project, including definition and rationale of the project, how the project was awarded to Minister Persaud, Minister Persaud‘s documented expertise (qualifications, experience and certification) that resulted in his selection, whose responsibility it would have been to evaluate the quality of Minister Persaud‘s work product and to recommend payment, arrangements to recover any advances if Minister Persaud failed to deliver (satisfactorily) and so on. In short, there ought to be both transparency and accountability, with financial guidelines, ethical principles and the rule of law forming the standards by which the project would have been administered and managed.
I believe that former Minister and the then Permanent Secretaries of the Ministries that requested the service should be invited to provide all documentation and answer any and all questions relative to the project before any (further) payment is disbursed. It may be that criminality would be unearthed, in which case, the law should take its course. In other words, Minister Harmon should extend his investigative interest to individuals other than the former Minister, Mr. Persaud and should not be content with non-payment to Mr. Persaud, if fraud is detected.
I read with interest that the former Minister stated that he was not required to produce a written work product but that he delivered his advice at “face to face meetings“. Really? All I can say about that is that if that practice did not characterize how business seemed to have been handled at governmental levels during the past regime, and if it did not provide (perhaps orchestrated) opportunities for financial and other types of malfeasance, this would have been laughable.
This so-called project should be investigated thoroughly and anyone in breach of financial regulations and/or anyone falling foul of the law should be dealt with accordingly.
Finally, it was not clear from the Kaieteur News Article whether the former Minister was “contracted“ prior to his resignation. Certainly, if he was, then, I believe from an ethical point of view, he would have had no business offering paid service to the paid Ministries.
Tessa Stevens

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