GAPE Executive acknowledges inaccuracies in engineers’ estimates

Apr 30, 2017 News

Public procurement refers to the purchase of goods, services and works by Governments and State-owned entities.
The public procurement process is the sequence of activities starting with the assessment of needs through awards to contract management and final payment.
Since public procurement accounts for a substantial portion of the taxpayers’ money, the process is expected to be carried out efficiently and with high standards in order to ensure that high quality services are delivered and at the same time, ensuring the public’s interest is safeguarded against wastage and most importantly corruption.
For years, concerns have been raised over the public procurement system in Guyana.
Numerous letters have been written, alleging that there exists corruption at various levels of the process.
Numerous red flags have also been raised in the past with the most recent being the subject of engineers’ estimates where contactors themselves, questioned the competence of the State engineers – who are dubbed the “gatekeepers” of the peoples’ monies.
Contractors are consistently bidding below – in many cases by millions of dollars – the engineers’ estimates. One contractor explained that if bidders consistently bid way below the engineer’s estimate, it signals that works can be done at a cheaper cost.
It can further be deduced that the engineers’ estimates are not a true reflection of the cost to carry out a project.
This was reported, taking into consideration that there have been known cases in the past where the engineers’ estimates were being deliberately ‘inflated’.
Another contractor believed that the engineers must be catering for “superior” materials.
“Unless they making the engineer’s estimate to cater for superior quality materials, this is obviously utter rubbish because obviously, those materials are not available locally.
“The engineers are supposed to be looking out for the State’s interest to ensure that we (the state) don’t pay contractors way above (what) we can afford. It creates an impression that these engineers are incompetent or worse yet, corrupt,” the contractor alleged.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, during the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing in the Georgetown last week, admitted that there were deficiencies with the engineers’ estimates.
He used the forum to call on the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers (GAPE), to address the matter to ensure that there is public confidence in the presentation of these estimates.
Speaking to Kaieteur News via telephone yesterday, an Executive Member of that association acknowledged the call made by the Minister.
However, the official requested that the government’s wishes be presented in writing. There needs to be an official request by the government, the member opined.
“All we heard is that they need GAPE to get involved but nobody contacted us. They’re not coming forward and tell us exactly what they want,” the engineer said.
Commenting on the issue of engineers’ estimates, the member noted that in some cases, these estimates are inaccurate; this has to do with the methodology used by the engineers.
The veteran engineer who claimed to have provided “over 100 engineer’s estimates” said that the methodology used to create these estimates should include several factors including the current cost of the materials, labour costs, use of machinery, transportation, and profit.
The member noted, also, that the engineers are not all to be blamed for the disparity. Some contractors, the members said, are bidding extremely lower just to be selected for the job.
Once awarded, the contractors then proceed to cut costs by carrying out the job using inferior materials which results in “substandard work”.
The member said that the association for years has been calling for support and has been providing recommendations to the government to better the field of engineering in Guyana to ensure public confidence. However, these calls were answered and the recommendations never acted upon.

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GAPE Executive acknowledges inaccuracies in engineers’ estimates

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