Paying without verifying

Nov 12, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – What is going on in this country? Who is in charge of what goes on here? Who knows exactly what ought to be known regarding costly ventures that, from the record, keep being repeated? This is what was brought to light again by this paper, “Contractor paid without verification of works -PAC hears” (KN November 9). When is this confounded nonsense going to stop; be a thing of the past?
The related news story is ugly, shabby, and sickening. Nobody does business like this anywhere in the world. At least, they have something, some piece of paper with the name of some senior officer signing off, so that there can be a show, even if it is flimsy of doing what was required. But, because this is Guyana, and the now standing political and public service culture, things like these happen, and will continue to happen. It is because of the kind of people that we elect, and those that they put in charge to get the business of the people done. They (both the ruling politicians at the time and the cooperating bureaucrats that they select) only want to do business a certain way. A way that is crooked and leaves little by way of a paper trail to follow, and any clear picture of who was in charge, and who has to answer.
The problem is further compounded by the fact that in the rare instances, someone is found on whom to pin responsibility, there are no penalties. What we have had is something called jawboning, which is nothing more than a quick meaningless tongue lashing in public, and everybody feels good that that hard duty is over with, then it is back to what is the norm. That is, more awarding of contracts to people who don’t deliver, engineers who dodge responsibility, and seniors who protest that they were not on the spot, which means that they have no oversight responsibility for what happened, and should be given a pass. They usually are, because nothing happens, except that the Guyanese taxpayers keep paying, with no one verifying anything.
The article referenced is but one example of the usual vulgarity that takes place in this country. The Regional Executive Officer (REO) said that she “was not present in the Region when the contract was being supervised.” She pointed to her predecessor. The prior REO could give a damn for what is alleged to have been his time and area of oversight, since the reports are that he is not responding to attempts at contacting him.
Next in line, was the regional engineer who said that he was not the engineer in charge at the time. In his defense, the engineer did inform the PAC that the works to the teachers’ living quarters in Region Two (Supenaam area) “was one which was to be examined on a daily basis, but this was not done…so the overpayment went to a concrete base that wasn’t properly constructed and some sheet lots.” The startling thing about this was that nobody knew anything about the ‘paying without verifying’ until the auditors made their rounds. And as if to add more insult to injury, the six-figure amount overpaid to the contractor has not been recovered.
Regarding the certificate of completion, everybody is distancing from that, and all are disowning any responsibility. To make matters worse, there is a shortage of relevant documents. After all, no one can audit what is not present and physical. This is a real cluster cluck, where public officers and contractors conspire and collaborate to cheat citizens time after time.
We have seen this before, and presented many instances of this before. The most recent example of paying without verifying (checking) is that US$9.5B disaster, which Guyana’s Vice President says we must pay because we don’t have the quality of auditors we need. The regional officers say what happened was years before them. Now, Guyana’s Vice President tells the nation that we will be paying without verifying, because for almost two years we didn’t have the right kind of auditors. Who is in cahoots with whom? Who is joining with other locals and foreigners to rob the Guyanese people blind?

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