Latest update February 7th, 2025 10:13 AM
Latest News
- Pres. Ali defends Jagdeo’s attacks on critics
- VP Jagdeo tries to compare 75 acres of jungle lands Nigel Hughes wants to acquire with 35 acres of prime city lands sold to Ed Ahmad and others
- Greaves tells Govt ‘clean money’ used to acquire New York properties- Jagdeo
- Trump says Israel would hand Gaza to the US after fighting is over
- Speeding truck ploughs into house at Lusignan
Questionable procurement of exercise, text books…We only contracted National Printers- Education Minister stands by press statement
Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry, has declined to make any further comments on issues surrounding the so
Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry
le sourcing of exercise books and textbooks from Guyana National Printers Limited (GNPL).
The Minister, during a sitting of the National Assembly yesterday, was questioned by reporters on the issue which has prompted state auditors to announce that they have started a probe.
The procurement of exercise and textbooks is in the vicinity of hundreds of millions of dollars annually, but there have been increasing complaints by not only local printers, but by officials at the government-run schools of being short-changed, with accusations of widespread fraud in the procurement.
The issue has been creating unease at the Ministry, at GNPL, and with government.
Officials in the Ministry and GNPL told Kaieteur News yesterday that they have been specifically ordered not to talk to press or else they will be slapped with sanctions.
The Ministry in its statement recently had made it clear that the printing of exercise books and textbooks produced locally is contracted to GNPL, which is a state-owned entity, located at 1 Public Road, La Penitence, Georgetown, Guyana.
“The Education Ministry has no arrangement for printing of local textbooks and exercise books with any other company as is inferred in the article,” the statement had said.
GNPL’s CEO, Trevor Bassoo
However, glaringly absent from the statement was the price that the Ministry paid GNPL for the books.
Local printers had bitterly complained of not being consulted or seeing any advertisements for bids for exercise and text books.
There is a lot of money involved – almost $600M this year – for the procurement of books.
A number of printers met recently to find ways to raise their issues with government.
They said they have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in equipment and properties, with loans owed to the banks, but they are given very little in government printing jobs.
In fact, since 2017, GNPL has not been advertising for locals to supply the books.
The local printers opined that there is a clear plan by Government to kill their business.
In addition to no tenders, there is evidence that even the exercise books coming are not the right number of pages.
Recently, photos surfaced showing chequered line exercise books as 56 pages instead of the required 80 pages.
Over the years, the Ministry has been ordering 80-page exercise books, including double lines and chequered-lined books.
Following a number of stories about the book procurement contracts, which have been handled by GNPL, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Kaieteur News, was given a number of photographs, which indicated that the people of Guyana did not get what the Ministry ordered and thus lost tens of millions of dollars over time.
Representatives of the local printers said that there is more than enough capacity and competitive pricing in Guyana to comfortably handle any order for books that the Government of Guyana needs.
The biggest printers in the country – A1 Printery, Kimoke Printery, Kaieteur Books Inc. and F&H Printing Establishment – are the ones crying foul.
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.
They say that GNPL, as a state company, is unfairly competing with them.
“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 for the printers said last week.
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 printery 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 can say what was delivered and at what cost.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
What Guyanese leaders can learn from Donald Trump
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News-There is little dispute that Donald Trump knows how to make an entrance. He does so without... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
