Bid document probe…Procurement officer caught on tape asking contractor for kickbacks

Mar 18, 2019 News

A Senior Procurement Officer who has been sent on administrative leave pending an internal probe was also allegedly caught on tape last year negotiating with a contractor for kickbacks.
A complaint was reportedly made to his superiors but it is unclear what, if anything, was done about it.
The officer was sent on leave about three weeks ago after he was found removing sensitive bid documents from a secured room and later allegedly, illegally adjusted the amount upwards by $15M.
Fortunately, it was discovered and the project, a road contract, will have to be retendered.
On Friday, Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, confirmed that a probe was underway and that an initial report has been handed to the Finance Secretary and Junior Minister of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma.
Expressing worry, the minister was upbeat that the systems of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) were good enough to have picked up what he described as an irregular activity at “irregular hours.”
NPTAB is the body that accepts and processes government’s bid documents for goods and services and construction.
Located in the Ministry of Finance compound, Main Street, over the year, NPTAB would have been accused time and again of allowing wrongdoings.
The Coalition Government had vowed to clean up the systems, strengthening it after coming to office in 2015.
However, about three weeks ago, officials say that something happened.
A senior official who is integrally involved in the process was seen on camera entering a secured room where bid documents, that are being attended to, are stored.
He reportedly stashed copies of documents and smuggled them out of the ministry’s compound.
It is said that he made adjustments to the figures and then returned the documents the next day.
The problem is that there was another copy of the bid document in the office of a senior staffer. The amount on that one was not tampered with.
The procurement officer was asked to proceed on administrative leave pending a probe.
According to Jordan, while to his knowledge a report was not made to the police, it is likely that it will head in that direction.
Over the years, wrongdoings, including collusion with contractors and state engineers and government officials, have all been blamed for poor quality work, inflated contract prices and corruption in the country’s procurement system.

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