Procurement Commissioners paid over $150M in 18 months and only produced 2 reports

Jan 31, 2024 News

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…Opposition MP questions whether Guyana receiving value for money

Kaieteur News – The Chairman and Commissioners on the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) have been paid over $150 million over the past 18 months in salaries and other benefits but have only managed to produce two investigative reports.

This was revealed on Tuesday morning as the National Assembly met to consider the 2024 Budget Estimates. This year, $270.9 million has been allocated to the Commission, a 15 percent increase over last year’s $235.3M. Highlighting this was Member of Parliament (MP), David Patterson who dominated the floor with queries about the operations of the Commission.

In response to his line of questions, the former Minister of Public Works was informed that since the PPC was re-established in 2022, four investigations were conducted, while only two reports have been completed. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira was keen to note that the Commission can only conduct investigations into matterS reported. She however later revealed that a dozen requests for investigations were received by the PPC between July 2022 and December 2023.

Teixeira said: “The present PPC, as far as I understand, is responding to the requests they get, the availability of documents, etcetera to investigate and they have said here, they have completed four investigations, they have two that they have published and that is between July 2022, when they were appointed and December 2023. And if my calculation of months is right, they did better than the original and the first PPC.”

While she accused the former PPC of merely completing two investigations between 2018 and 2020, Patterson contended that six probes were in fact conducted. Turning his attention to total budgetary allocations since 2022, which amount to a total of 435.1M ($199.8M in 2022, $235.3M in 2023), Patterson asked for an explanation, given that only two reports have been completed. He also questioned the salary received by the Chairman and members of the Commission when it was explained that the PPC has so far received more than $150M in salaries and other benefits since 2022.

Minister Teixeira said it was public knowledge that Chair of the PPC, Pauline Chase is paid $15.6M annually, along with telephone, entertainment and travel allowances and another $3.9M for security. Her total wages and salary on an annual basis is $20M.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Chair, Berkley Wickham earns $1.1M monthly, along with a traveling allowance of $140,760, $120,000 for entertainment and $240,000 for telephone allowance, annually, similar to what is received by Chase. On an annual basis, the Deputy Chair bags $13.7M. The other three members of the Commission are: Joel Bhagwandin, Rajnarine Singh and Diana Rajkumar, are paid $900M each, monthly, along with other allowances. Teixeira said the total wage bill for the commissioners amount to $61.2M and $6.6M for benefits and allowance.

This means that the PPC receives $101.5 million annually ($20M, $13.7M, $61.2M and $6.6M) and has therefore received over $150 since 2022 but has completed only two reports. Patterson therefore asked whether this was value for money. Minister Teixeira in her response pointed out that the PPC has 13 functions under Article 212 of the Constitution, one of which is investigations. In addition, she noted that the Public Procurement Act also outlines other roles of the body in compliance with the constitution.

Consequently, she said, “Do we think we are getting value for money? Yes, in the anti-corruption field and in being able to investigate and have an authority that is constitutional and independent of the government…the money is well used because it allows for that oversight function and being able to monitor what is going on.”

The minister therefore noted that it was disingenuous for the MP to only question the number of reports rather than its other functions. To this end, she highlighted that the Commission has visited seven of the 10 Regions, had training programmes and outreaches conducted, met with contractors, and have also been monitoring the activities across a number of agencies.”

Functions of the PPC

According to the Constitution, the functions of the Public Procurement Commission are to – (1) monitor and review the functioning of all public procurement systems to ensure that they are in accordance with law and such policy guidelines as may be determined by the National Assembly; (2) promote awareness of the rules, procedures and special requirements of the procurement process among suppliers, constructors and public bodies; (3) safeguard the national interest in public procurement matters, having due regard to any international obligations; (4) monitor the performance of procurement bodies with respect to adherence to regulations and efficiency in procuring goods and services and execution of works; (5) approve of procedures for public procurement, disseminate rules and procedures for public procurement and recommend modifications thereto to the public procurement entities; (6) monitor and review all legislation, policies and measures for compliance with the objects and matters under its purview and report the need for any legislation to the National Assembly; (7) monitor and review the procurement procedures of the ministerial, regional, and national procurement entities as well as those of project execution units; (8) investigate complaints from suppliers, contractors and public entities and propose remedial action; (9) investigate cases of irregularity and mismanagement, and propose remedial action; (10) initiate investigations to facilitate the effective functioning of public procurement systems; (11) enlist the aid of such persons, as may be necessary, to assist the Commission with expert advice; (12) liaise with and refer matters to the police and the Auditor General; and (13) do all other acts and things as may be necessary to facilitate the efficient discharge of the functions of the Commission.

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• Berkley Wickham, Chair of the PPC, Deputy Chairman, Pauline Chase, PPC

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