Local printers demand National Printers come clean-says it is clear case of Govt. killing private sector

May 10, 2019 News

Several local printers yesterday banded together to demand an investigation after the state-owned Guyana National Printers Limited (GNPL)

GNPL’s GM, Trevor Bassoo

admitted that it sub-contracted a Trinidad supplier for text and exercise books.
Representatives of the local printers said that there is more than enough capacity and competitive pricing in Guyana to comfortably handle any orders for books that the Government of Guyana has.
Gathered at a meeting to ponder their next move were the biggest printers in the country- A1 Printery, Kimoke Printery, Kaieteur Books Inc. and F&H Printing Establishment, among others.
There are at least four other large printers who are angry over the situation and are planning to ask President David Granger for a meeting.
The Ministry of Education reportedly has more than $500M earmarked this year for producing text and exercise books for the scores of primary and secondary schools that the state manages across the country.
However, very little work is coming the way of the local printers since 2017.
Instead, the Ministry of Education has contracted GNPL to produce the books.
GNPL is in essence competing with private printers, receiving a price that is more than double than what local printers can produce, Kaieteur News was told yesterday.
According to the printers, they want to make it absolutely clear that they are not advocating for GNPL to not be part of the process. Rather, they are calling on President David Granger to ensure that there is a level playing field.

Level Playing Field

“We have workers. We pay our taxes. We pay VAT. We don’t get tax breaks on equipment. We are not being subsidised. We are asking for a level-playing field. The government has been talking about building capacity. We have capacity. We are inviting them to visit us to see what we have,” a spokesman of the printers said yesterday.
Under the arrangements, GNPL was supposed to produce local textbooks and exercise books.
It was granted a $100M loan for a printery in 2017, but that printer has not been operating.
In any case, the entity on its own is unable to meet the demands of the Ministry.
There were questions raised also about the secrecy of the orders by the Ministry.
No one seems to have an idea what the Ministry of Education has ordered. No one can say what was delivered and at what cost.
The ministry insisted that it contracted GNPL for books and not any other company.
The Ministry made no mention of the price and what it ordered.
Since 2017, the orders for books have not been publicly tendered.
In fact, the printing officials said, their companies have not even been pre-qualified.
“We have cases where documents we have submitted have mysteriously disappeared during the procurement phase. There is a lot that is wrong with the procurement of books. We understand that by exposing this we are open for discrimination but we believe that the President is a serious man who will not tolerate this.”
The President in 2016 had toured GNPL’s La Penitence operations where the conditions were noted.
Granger announced he will make funding available for the printing operations to be made more competitive and modern.
However, technical issues have plagued the corporation with a second-hand press experiencing electrical and other issues.
The printers said they have written President Granger, former Minister of State, Joseph Harmon and even Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, at varying times.
“We were not consulted for orders. GNPL will have to provide proof whether there was a tender to sub-contract and how it decided to choose a particular printer over another. What we know is that we reading in the paper that they went to Trinidad,” an official from a prominent city printer said.
The disclosures by the printers would bolster claims that GNPL did not consult with local companies to fulfill a major order by the Ministry of Education. Rather, it went to Trinidad directly.
“Here is the nonsense from GNPL. They are saying that we can’t fulfill within a particular time frame. We have been fulfilling it all the time. Then you go to Trinidad and place the same order and it can be delivered cheaper, inclusive of shipping and handling? Somebody is lying.”
Printers said they were asked to use papers that GNPL acquired elsewhere to produce exercise books.
On Wednesday, under pressure to explain why it bypassed local companies, GNPL admitted that it ordered books from Trinidad and Tobago.
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 textbooks, 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.
Unilaterally Selected
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.
It said that all textbooks 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.
The entity claimed that most or all of the local printers did not have the capacity to supply the large orders, something that the printers vehemently denied yesterday.
GNPL did not immediately say what prices it paid the overseas suppliers. That price would include waiting time, 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 on Thursday.
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.
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 textbooks 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 textbooks.
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.”