Army dodges questions about $17M payment for non-existent works

Nov 30, 2018 News

Among the many issues highlighted in the Auditor General’s Report 2017 was the fact that “GDF prepared, certified and paid a contractor $17.830M for works which had not yet commenced on the site.”
The project was reportedly a $52.6M project for the construction of a timber wharf, approach and floating raft at the Guyana Defence Force Coastal Battalion, New Amsterdam and was awarded by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to the lowest and most responsive of three bidders. The Engineer’s Estimate was $54.508M.

GDF Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Patrick West

In earlier reports, Kaieteur News detailed that according to the contract, the duration for completion of the works was six months from signing.
However, “at the time of reporting, a total of nine months had elapsed and the works were incomplete; and no performance bond or advance payment bond was seen in the documents examined; as such it is unclear if there was a valid bond at the time of reporting.”
The state auditors also reported: “It is unclear if the advance payment was recovered” and in addition, it could not be determined from Payment Voucher examined who certified the works.
However, physical verification by the auditors, of the works revealed that the contractor was overpaid the sum of $17.830M.
In the report, GDF provided a response which stated that “The Head of Budget Agency indicated that the force is working to recover the overpayment by September 24, 2018 in that the contractor will present a cheque for the overpayment in the name of the Finance Officer, GDF.
The GDF Engineer will monitor the works more closely to ensure that the pace of work is increased, in keeping with the payments made.”
Kaieteur News has been attempting to garner a response from the army.
Recently, Kaieteur News spoke to an official who claimed he was the “media operative”.
The “operative” made it clear that he is not in a position to answer the questions presented by this publication and referred them to the Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Patrick West.
As a result, several calls were made to the Chief-of-Staff’s office.
The reporter was told a repetitive list of excuses such as “The chief is not here”, “The chief is in a meeting”, “Call back tomorrow”, “The chief can’t speak to you now,” among others.
However, in a call to the Chief of Staff’s office yesterday, this publication spoke to the Chief’s secretary who made it clear that “GDF would deal with the relevant people and that does not include Kaieteur News.”
The Secretary further stated that “the chief would not speak to Kaieteur News on that issue” and to question why reporters would want to speak with the chief.

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