GNPL admits ordering books in Trinidad; local printers insists they have capacity

May 09, 2019 News

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The state-owned Guyana National Printers Limited (GNPL) has admitted that it ordered books from Trinidad and Tobago.

However, the explanation by the corporation is not going down well with local printers who insisted that they were not consulted.
They say that the proper procurement procedures were not followed.
In fact, the corporation had attempted to force at least three printers to use GNPL rolls of paper to produce the books.
The printers refused because the cost of paper from GNPL was way above the cost printers acquired their paper.
GNPL is under pressure to explain and provide proof how it bypassed local printers and ordered tens of millions of dollars of books overseas.
The Audit Office of Guyana has said that it is preparing to investigate whether proper procurement procedures were followed and whether Guyana got value for its money.
Rackets involving the procurement of exercise and text books, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, have been ongoing for years now. The Coalition Government has vowed to stamp out the corruption.
Consecutive state audits on the Ministry of Education had raised red flags over procurement, delivery and storage.
In recent days, Kaieteur News has been critical of the way in which the Ministry of Education and GNPL have been sourcing books for the schools.
GNPL, questioning the motives of Kaieteur News yesterday, said that recent reports by the newspaper border on being dishonest, malicious, reckless and is to some extent “libelous”.
GNPL has been selected unilaterally by Government to produce registration forms for the Guyana Elections Commission, and even Official Gazettes, to the tune of millions of dollars.
GNPL said that over the years, it was contracted by the Ministry of Education to supply exercise books for use by public schools in Guyana.
“In 2018 after the new board ramped up its marketing and sales opportunities, the company received a contract to supply textbooks to the Ministry of Education (MOE) for the first time in decades.
“All text books were ordered directly by the MOE, either from the printers in Trinidad, or local suppliers –many of whom order the supplies from Port of Spain.
“This was obvious, as most or all of the local printers did not have the capacity to supply the large orders.”
GNPL did not immediately say what prices it paid the overseas suppliers. That price would include waiting time and shipping and handling.
GNPL stressed that over the years, it has always supplied exercise books to the Ministry of Education.
With regards to recent orders, GNPL had this to say:
“As part of the exercise books contract, GNPL received orders to supply checkered line books as well. Because of old equipment and consistent delays, the company, in an effort to meet the deadlines of providing the books for schools ,ordered the checkered line books on a sub-contractual basis from Trinidad. This arrangement continued up until 2017.”
The corporation claimed that in 2017, Kaieteur Books Inc., which now had the capacity to print the checkered line books, was given the orders by GNPL to print the books locally.
It claimed that the price by local printers was higher than Trinidad.
However, GNPL provided no proof of this yesterday.
In fact, at least two printers challenged GNPL to produce those payments to Trinidad as it would determine whether Guyana got value for its money.
This decision to go local was taken in spite of the cost of printing was higher than in Trinidad.
“The decision however, was based on the fact that a local company had developed the capacity to do the job, and the Board of Directors wanted to ensure that the printing was done locally, since the ability to have it printed here was now available,” GNPL said.
GNPL claimed that to date, it continues to share the printing of the checkered line books with Kaieteur Books Inc.
GNPL claimed that the local printer was unable to provide a complete product (inclusive of Quality Control and Packaging) to hand over to the Ministry of Education.
According to Kaieteur Books, this is a blatant untruth.
In 2017, GNPL said it received a loan from the Government to purchase and enhance its capacity to provide a reliable and efficient service to its customers, including its biggest one – the Ministry of Education.”
GNPL said that it is it is no secret that the Ministry of Education, in the past did contract a Trinidadian company to print the majority of the text books because the capacity to do it locally was not available, at that time.
GNPL did not say how many times it went to Trinidad to sole-source books.
It added, “Therefore there was great excitement and expectations to have that business come back to Guyana since we were on the verge of having our press up and running. Unfortunately, we encountered some early electrical issues and were faced with the challenge of meeting our deadline for the Ministry of Education.
“In our efforts to salvage any disruptions of the delivery of the books, GNPL contacted the local companies we felt had the capacity to print the books, including Kaieteur Books Inc.”
Kaieteur Books Inc refuted this statement.
GNPL however reverted to the Trinidad company for the printing of the text books.
“We at GNPL were saddened in having to make this decision. But as a business, and in order to maintain our responsibility to the Ministry of Education and by extension the school children around the country, we were forced to go that route.”
The corporation said that since these developments, it has continued to produce and satisfy the orders for exercise books for the Ministry of Education and all of its customers.
It said it is also putting systems in place to correct the challenges “and can assure we will be ready to print the orders for books for the upcoming academic year.”

 

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