THE PROCUREMENT COMMISSION IS HOMELESS; HERE’S WHY

Mar 07, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The Procurement Commission is homeless and APNU+AFC has disapproved of their efforts to rent office space in Georgetown. Information circulating in Georgetown is that the Commission requested approval to rent office space in a Queenstown building, but APNU+AFC rejected their request. Reliable sources in Georgetown told me that the Procurement Commission’s request was rejected by the Ministry of the Presidency two weeks ago. Why would APNU+AFC deny the Procurement Commission office space?
This is a part of the frustration strategy that APNU+AFC is deliberately employing to stall the work of Commissioners. The Procurement Commission unintentionally confirmed this in its press release a couple of days ago. The press release essentially consolidates the perception that the Commission is deliberately being subterfuge and sabotaged so that it remains a toothless poodle. In its statement, the Procurement Commission admitted that coming on to six months since they were sworn into office and more than a year since they were formally nominated, the Commission is still without a home. It is insulting to the Commissioners and to the Guyanese people that no provision has been made to house the Procurement Commission. The revelation that the Procurement Commissioners have been meeting at various places because they are homeless is sad, it’s a repudiation of the Parliament which nominated the Commission to start its work more than a year ago and it is an indictment of APNU+AFC.
APNU+AFC before the elections promised that the Procurement Commission would be appointed and begin its work within 100 days of being in Government. They presented the procurement Commission as a panacea to end procurement corruption in Guyana. Well its now more than 500 days since APNU+AFC has been in government, the Commission has been in place for more than 100 days now and it is still homeless. It is sheer hypocrisy, speaking on one side of their mouths that the procurement Commission is a vitally important additional transparency and accountability measure and then doing all in their powers to keep the Procurement Commission homeless.
Last week in a missive (Paying the Procurement Commissioners to be Quiet) published under my name I questioned why APNU+AFC has been paying the Procurement Commissioners since October (more than $25M so far), but not providing them with the means to carry out their function. My statement then did not cast any aspersion on the Commissioners. There was and is no intention to deem any member of the Procurement Commission as taking money for doing nothing. They were nominated by a bipartisan process and hopefully will one day soon be able to add another check-and-balance in our procurement process. It is not their fault that thus far they have appeared as nothing more than a toothless poodle, unable to perform their duties. My contention then was that the APNU+AFC administration view them as an inconvenience and, therefore, has sought to have a Procurement Commission only as a show. APNU+AFC would be contented to continue paying the Commissioners indefinitely for doing nothing.
Given the enormity and frequency of questionable deals that APNU+AFC has burdened Guyana with, suspicion abounds that the non-functioning Procurement Commissioners have been de-fanged. Now comes another disappointing piece of news. Cabinet appears that it is not ready to give up its No-Objection approval of contracts worth more than $15M. APNU+AFC had promised that Cabinet would completely remove themselves from approval processes and leave tendering and contract consideration to the entities and the national Procurement and Tender Board (NPTB).
We should not be shocked that APNU+AFC is actively delaying and deferring action by the Procurement Commission. This is an administration whose leader, President Granger, defended APNU+AFC in 2016 by insisting that too much attention is paid to government corruption while there is more private sector corruption. APNU+AFC’s, Raphael Trotman, lectured us that people who made political donations to APNU+AFC were making business investments and they reasonably expected rewards in the form of contracts and the government has an obligation to meet those expectations. Joe Harmon, Granger’s right hand man, defined special privileges given to the donors as honorific. APNU+AFC has a propensity to rationalize corruption.
In the meanwhile, there is a long list of dubious deals. The Parking Meter Contract, the GPL contract which was awarded to a bidder at a cost of $1B more than the next lowest bid, the Durban Park scandal with a mounting cost above $1B, the annual rental for a house serving as a medical warehouse at a cost of more than $170M annually to store some condoms, the impending deal to privatize Skeldon, the secret deal to give away Enmore Packaging plant, the more than $100M in contracts dished out to friends and supporters for forensic audits without any tender are only some of the scandalous procurement travesties. Every day, small and large secret deals are made. The Procurement Commission is being forced into a de facto coma. APNU+AFC is splurging without restraint with taxpayers money while frustrating the work of the Procurement Commission.
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

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