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Coalition destroyed procurement system – VP Jagdeo
Kaieteur News – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo was of the strong view that APNU+AFC Coalition Opposition leader Joseph Harmon is in no position to lecture the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration on its procurement procedures after his regime destroyed an entire system of procurement.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Jagdeo blasted Harmon for the comments he made at a press conference, stating that he cannot testify to anything that is “proper and legal.”
Harmon during his weekly press meet yesterday expressed concerns over the recent appointment of Taramchan Balgobin as the National Procurement and Tender Board (NPTAB) acting Chair.
With Balgobin also serving as the Project Cycle Management Division (PCMD) within the Finance Ministry, Harmon claims that his new appointment merges the two divisions and takes away the independence of NPTAB.
“This new and incestuous relationship between PCMD and NPTAB imposed by Cabinet, Harmon said, “Threatens the integrity, transparency, fairness and public trust in the procurement system.”
But according to the Vice President, Harmon should refrain from making such assertions as he once sat on the National Industrial & Commercial Investments Ltd. (NICIL) Board when that agency signed away “hundreds of acres of lands, worth billions of dollars” to investors in a deal reeking of illegality.
Kaieteur News had detailed in reports, the transaction by the previous APNU+AFC administration where over 130 acres of prime lands were vested to high profile investors. Not only were the large plots of State lands on the East Coast of Demerara transferred without transparency, no payments were received for them.
Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon
“So he now wants to give testimony as to who should be on the Tender Board,” Jagdeo pointed out “and who should not, when they just destroyed an entire system of procurement.”
Jagdeo was also quick to point out that under Harmon’s administration, a string of public procurement procedures were breached. He cited that the APNU+AFC had ceased the publishing of awards on the procurement website, which is required by law.
It should be noted that it was only after Kaieteur News brought the issue to the fore that the website was updated by NPTAB. Further, the Vice President stated the previous administration also raised the limits to Ministerial Tender Boards.
Not only that, Jagdeo highlighted that while in caretaker mode, the Coalition also dished out billions worth in contracts, fully aware that they had no authority to do so. One such example was the $352 million contract handed to Brian Tiwari’s BK International Inc. for the repairs of breached sea defence at Content, Mahaicony.
“Contrary to the law, they awarded contracts, billions of dollars, that led to massive rollovers into 2020, illegally so,” Jagdeo added.
Jagdeo mentioned that the PPP/C had passed a law that prohibited Cabinet from awarding contracts. He explained that under this law, Cabinet only has a no-objection role but the previous administration, he said, reversed it “and started awarding contracts, contrary to the law”.
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