The Story Within The Story… Losing respect for the House

Nov 25, 2018 News

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Leonard Gildarie

In the past few weeks, quite a few things have dominated the news. For me the two that stood out (and one which was heavily debated), were the Report of the Auditor General of spending in 2017 and the decision by the Ministry of Public Security to clampdown on noise nuisance.
There are certain things that lend to the quality of life of citizens. The rule of law and capacity of a country to monitor would be among one of the top things that would uplift life of the people.
Without laws, without rules, we would descend into chaos.
We have a Constitution, which spells out our rights and how things should be done. It is a guide that has been subject to interpretations and tested time and again in the courts. That is how it should be. We must have the right to recourse.
There are other laws and regulations that govern various aspects of the country’s welfare – from human trafficking and illegal logging, to murder and trafficking in narcotics. There are noise and other forms of pollutions, too, that are addressed.
We head over to the National Assembly, which comprises elected representatives in what is supposed to be the most sacred of institutions. It is where the checks and balances are expected to occur and where our laws are being made after facing what should be intense scrutiny and consultations.
Our lawmakers or parliamentarians, as we know them, are supposed to be more than representatives. They are our guardians at the gate, and, in their wisdom, are to provide the necessary protection by passing the pertinent laws to uplift the country.
Unfortunately, our respect for the National Assembly is not where it ought to be. There would be choice words to describe the situation.
We can blame it on ignorance or just plain disrespect by political parties for the House.
As a reporter, I have had the experience of covering sittings of the National Assembly and the Public Accounts Committee. The latter is responsible for examining the annual reports of the Auditor General on spending of the Government and make recommendations to correct breaches and to monitor efforts by the accounting officers to correct the violations.
The biggest spender on contracts is government. We are talking billions of taxpayers’ dollars.
Over the years, the Auditor General, in carrying out his duties of examining the accounts of the ministries, state agencies and the regional authorities, has been constantly flagging violations of spending and procurement breaches, among other things.
For those not familiar, all ministries, state agencies and regional democratic councils have their own accounting officers. For the ministries, it is the Permanent Secretaries. At the RDC levels, it is the Regional Executive Officer. For state agencies, it is most likely the accountants.
Each entity has limits to spending. Anything above that limit has to go to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.
Contracts have to be advertised so citizens can be aware of what is happening, and firms and other companies can have a fair opportunity to place a bid.
While a contract is ongoing, payments are only supposed to be made periodically based on work done. So if 25 percent of the work is done, the supervisor or engineer cannot sign off and authorize payments of 90 percent of the contract price. The release of payments has to be consistent with the work done.
Yet for all the strict procurement systems at various levels of government, we have breaches.
In fact, the fraud is so multi-leveled that it would make Guyanese sick to the stomach to know how much of our tax dollars is lost to corruption.
For example, there is something called contract splitting. A particular ministry wants a bond to store materials. It separates the contract into several parts to avoid going over the limit to spend and therefore attracting the attention of the Tender Board. The enterprising accounts folks would split the contract into several parts – roof to one contract, foundation to another, and electrical to a particular company. More than likely one contractor benefitted. Kickbacks are likely involved.
Another breach is perpetuated when one bidder is told quietly about a particular contract. With some RDCs and NDCs requiring three bids, one person can get two friends to submit two bids that are way too high to be considered. It is all kept in house. Everybody is in the know.
There are stories of evaluators of bids deliberately disqualifying bidders to position close friends and selected contractors. In most cases, one member of the evaluation team is from a minister’s office or a member of the RDC’s committees.
Another common fraud occurs with supervising engineers or clerks of works signing off on works, which never happened or were done below the required quality.
How many of us can attest to a completed road, which instead of three inches, had one inch of asphalt? Yet the contractors smile and walk away with the payments for the job.
Do we blame the contractors or the engineers who passed the shoddy work?
Many engineers, a few years out of school, are well off, driving BMWs and other expensive vehicles. Yes, eyebrows are raised, yet nothing much seems to be done about where the monies came from.
So, we come to the work of the Auditor General.
The Audit Office would send staffers to various ministries and RDCs to examine accounts.
Auditors would visit sites where contracts are happening and payments made to contractors would be verified to the work done. Inventories of supplies made are verified against payments made.
Year after year, the Auditor General’s reports would point out to overpayments, breaches in procurement, non-delivery of supplies, and other serious breaches. Accounting officers are very familiar with the regulations. The buck stops at them. While there is little a few accounting officers can do to stop rogue engineers, many of them are in collusion.
Year after year, accounting officers appear before the Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Opposition parliamentarians, to explain why for five or six years a breach has not been corrected.
Year after year, we have the same “mistakes” being made. Yet, it seems the violations continue.
We can go on and on. One should visit the website of the Auditor General, download one of the reports, and judge for yourself.
The continued breaches are a slap in the face for the authority of Parliament.
Surely, this must be disrespect to the highest by ministries, RDCs, NDCs and other state agencies at fault.
Do we dare wonder why there is so little attention being paid to Parliament?
In the same vein, we can look at what has become of our nightspots.
A few years ago, the Ministry of Public Security enforced an old law that says all nightspots have to close at 2am. There were immediate criticisms. Guyanese love to party late.
Fast forward to 2018, we now have the same ministry moving to curb noise nuisance.
Police have been equipped with equipment to test noise levels.
I work late most days. I love my relaxing, kickback mode around 10pm.
At Kaieteur News, we have received numerous complaints of bars blasting music to the wee hours of the morning. Calls to the police by residents saw promises of a patrol. Night after night, and on weekends, the ear-splitting attacks on citizens continue.
I can understand a barbecue or wedding. I cannot understand a bar in a residential area. There is nothing to argue about. There is no justification.
Our zoning regulations, or lack thereof, and corrupt City Hall and NDCs, have brought this on us. The issue is being debated bitterly, as there are nightspots operators who are claiming that in this hard guava season that it is unfair.
I visited New York and went to Kaieteur Bar in Queens. You can stand at the entrance and barely hear a murmur and on entering the full blast of music would hit you. The bars are soundproof. You play music loud and the cops come.
It is simple, my friends, we have to do things differently. We are moving up and there must be respect for laws and of course for Parliament. If we start at the top, the bottom will comply.

 

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