Small contractor questions Govt. selective award of contracts

Apr 09, 2019 News

The $228M Ministry of Finance Annex under
construction at Croal and Winter Place, Brickdam

A small contractor is questioning the manner in which contracts are awarded by the State. The contractor, who spoke to Kaieteur News on the condition of anonymity, raised questions about the award of contracts at the level of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, (NPTAB).

The contractor complained of the selection process, which he says, favours large contractors. “Whenever the government puts out tenders for big projects, the projects most likely find themselves in the hands of the big contractors, even though small contractors offer to do the work for far less.”

The businessman has been managing a private construction firm for 20 years. He started bidding for Government contracts a few years ago.

The contractor says the experience with NPTAB has left a bitter taste in his mouth. He believes that some level of underhandedness is at play at the Tender Administration Board.

His comments come days after a staff member of NPTAB was sent on leave to facilitate a police probe into an alleged incident of bid tampering.

According to the businessman, there are numerous instances where the award of contracts by NPTAB has ‘raised eyebrows’ of smaller contractors.

He highlighted one scenario in which he believes he was duped out of a contract. The contract was eventually awarded to a well known big contractor.

In 2017, I put in a bid for the contract to build the Ministry of Finance Annex. My bid was $186 million and the contractor who won the bid Courtney Benn Construction, tendered $228 M.

“My offer was far below the threshold—engineer’s estimate– and I could have done the project for less yet they overlooked me and the other small contractors.

“It leaves me to question by what measure are these contracts given. Is there transparency, fairness and accountability at play or are we losing because of dishonesty?”

The three-storey, multimillion-dollar annex is being constructed at the site of the former sports club of the Guyana National Cooperative Bank (GNCB), on Winter Place and Croal Street in Georgetown. The annex will house the ministry’s training room, a sports complex, a gym and the Camp Street valuation office.

NPTAB which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Finance is responsible for among other things, the opening and processing of bid documents from contractors and suppliers.

Last week, a long-serving official of the Board was sent on additional leave as police continue their probe into an alleged incident of bid tampering.

At least two staffers of the NPTAB were asked to visit the police headquarters at Eve Leary where they were questioned about what they knew.

The police also called in the Procurement Officer, who has been years with NPTAB and who is at the centre of the probe, for questioning. He reportedly came with his lawyer.

The matter of the bid tampering for the tender, from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, has caused it to be pulled back.

The matter had dragged in the Finance Ministry, raising questions about how extensive the wrongdoings were.

The Commission, which is the body to investigate wrongdoings in the handling of state contracts, had written the NPTAB asking it also to explain why they were not apprised earlier that there was a problem.

NPTAB acts as a sort of clearing house for accepting bids from ministries and state agencies, processing and recording them.

Over time, the NPTAB has been accused of wrongdoings, including collusion with contractors.

Two Fridays ago, sources said, the PPC met with senior NPTAB officials.

Until now, the NPTAB has not issued an official statement.

An artist impression of the proposed annex

In fact, it was only when approached that Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, disclosed that a report has been completed with the matter being addressed by the Finance Secretary, Michael Joseph.

Jordan admitted that “some irregular activities” occurred.

Asked about whether he is worried about the breaches after the Coalition Government had vowed to clean up things at the Tender Board, on being voted in May 2015, Jordan was clear.

“You will always be worried. As we said, no system is fool proof but luckily we had a system here that actually caught some irregular activities.”

He said that there is evidence that some “irregular activities” happened at “irregular times”.

It was reported that a Senior Procurement Officer of NPTAB, who has been there for years, was sent on administrative leave almost five 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 sought permission to enter the room, something that is unusual.

Rather, under the control system, the officer should have requested documents and sign for them.

He reportedly stashed the documents in his pockets and later left the NPTAB compound without returning it.

According to officials, an internal probe found that two bids 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 worth over $100M.

Sources have been raising serious questions about operations at the Tender Board.

“There are figures being changed. Everybody from ministry officials to Tender Board officials know what is happening behind the scenes. It involves millions of tax dollars. You want to know how bad it is, check where they live and what they drive,” one source explained.

It was said that last year, the same staffer was caught on tape asking a contractor for money, but the matter went dead.

“There was another matter involving a huge drug supply from a foreign supplier in the US. The media covered this. The NPTAB never addressed this matter fully. This is a matter for the Minister of Finance to address and launch an investigation. Nothing much has changed from old Tender Board. It is the same old hustling.”