Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
Time for forensic audit and criminal charges in Region 6
DEAR EDITOR,
In 2016, when the Auditor’s General Report was presented in the National Assembly , it stated among other things that 79 contracts totaling $147.586 million were not awarded to the lowest or the most competitive bidders and it also stated the reason why the lowest bidder was not awarded, the contract was ‘inadvertently not included in the Regional Tender Board minutes’. The REO blamed the scribe who took the minutes!
In that year I made it clear at the RDC Statutory meeting that Section 39(6) (a) of the Procurement Act makes it pellucid that ‘all evaluation criteria for the procurement of goods, works and services in addition to price, will be qualified in monetary terms and the tender will be awarded to the lowest evaluated bid’.
I further gave circumstances where this subsection has been blatantly violated, attesting to cronyism and corruption, and I gave clear examples where this was done on 7th July, 2016.
In April this year, it was reported in the media that the Auditor’s General’s Report for 2016 showed overpayments of salaries amounted to $345,000 and now the PAC has discovered that there was contract splitting to frustrate the objectives of Procurement Act and hence illegal.
A contract of $8.3 million for surgical gloves was split in three to fall below the $8 million ceiling, which the Regional Tender Board can award, and though the REO denied this fact, she later admitted to the PAC that there was contract splitting. This brings to mind the various versions of the bulldozer story. Similar to the bulldozer and true to form, she blamed the previous REO, Dr. Ramayya.
Then there is an upsurge of new ‘contractors’ in Region 6, some of whom barely have access to a hammer. However, don’t be mistaken. Many of these new ‘contractors’ are actually ‘fronts’ for the favoured contractors.
The Procurement Act Section (5) pronounces on the qualifications contractors should possess, and many of these contractors lack the capacity so they sub-contract the works to the real contractors who should have gotten the contracts in the first place. Therefore, this scenario now creates ‘middlemen’ who will sell the contract. What in effect is happening is that substandard work will result, since the contract price has to accommodate this split.
Undoubtedly, there is an urgent need for a forensic audit of the Tender Board in Region 6 to dig into the various questionable practices. The entire tendering process should be investigated and the awards of contracts and the background, experience and qualifications of these contractors should come under microscopic scrutiny.
Finally, should the Region’s REO not be charged with misconduct in public office? Should the RDC not move a vote of no confidence against her? Dr. Ramayya was the recipient of several such motions for far less.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councillor Region 6
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