Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
Police take over probe into Tender Board breach
Finance Secretary, Michael Joseph
The Guyana Police Force is now spearheading its own investigation into the tampering of bid documents at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) by one of its senior officials. This publication was informed of this development yesterday by Finance Secretary, Michael Joseph.
The attempt to tamper with a bid document has raised alarming questions for NPTAB, a processing entity for state contracts. The incident had been marred by secrecy, since the board failed to notify the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), the body responsible for investigating wrongdoings in the handling of state contracts.
Last week, Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma, said that the Procurement Commission wrote asking for a report.
“I can tell you that matter is being looked at by the Procurement Commission. They have asked for a report into the alleged incident,” Minister Sharma had said.
Kaieteur News was told that the Procurement Commission was upset that it had to learn of a problem at NPTAB through the media. For that, NPTAB has been written to, by the PPC, requesting an explanation for its failure to notify the Commission.
Officials from the PPC were present at last week’s tender openings, as well as last Tuesday’s, but the official at the last tender opening told this publication that his investigation was routine, and that it was not related to the recent incident.
It was reported that a Senior Procurement Officer of NPTAB, who has been there for years, was sent on administrative leave almost three weeks ago.
This was after he was reportedly caught on camera taking bid documents from a secured room at NPTAB.
It was reported that NPTAB, which oversees the opening of bid documents from contractors and suppliers, processed a number of them.
The documents were then stored in a special room. Copies were reportedly also in the custody of a senior manager.
Hours later, the staffer asked permission to enter the room, something that is unusual.
Rather, under the control system, the officer should have requested documents and signed for them.
He reportedly stashed the documents in his pockets and later left the NPTAB compound without returning them.
According to officials, an internal probe found that two tender documents were raised by $15M.
However, the attempt to tamper was discovered after a staffer talked and checks revealed that a copy of the bid document in the custody of the senior manager did not have the new figures.
The contract, a road project, was said to be worth over $100M.
It was said that last year, the same staffer was caught on tape asking a contractor for money, but the matter went dead.
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