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U.N. grills Guyana Govt. over selective contract reviews by Procurement Commission
United States-nominated candidate for the UN Human Rights Committee, Laurence Helfer and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira
Kaieteur News – The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) government was on Monday grilled by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee over selective contract reviews by Guyana’s Public Procurement Commission (PPC).
The PPC is a constitutional body tasked with “monitoring public procurement and the procedure in order to ensure that the procurement of goods, services and execution of works are conducted in a fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost- effective manner according to the country’s law”
At the 140th Session of the Human Rights Committee, its integrity was questioned. The United Sates (US) nominated Candidate to the Committee for the years, 2023-2026, Professor Laurence Helfer, while raising questions about the “functioning of various anti-corruption bodies in Guyana” said, “The Public Procurement Commission has also come under scrutiny for the slow pace of its work and selective oversight of government contracts which has long been a source of graft”.
Representing Guyana, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira in her response told the Committee that the PPC is functioning and that Helfer’s comments about its “slow work” must be taken “in context”. “…the commission when it came in found that files were missing that the past PPC (appointed under the previous coalition led administration) had removed and disappeared, many files”, Teixeira said while adding that the current PPC was understaffed and had to “hire people” and “reconstruct files.”
Members of the Public Procurement Commission, executive of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Dianna Rajcumar, former Chairman of the National Tender Board, Berkley Wickham, Joel Bhagwandin, President of the Guyana Bar Association, Pauline Chase and Rajnarine Singh
She continued that the commission is presently investigating a number of recent reports and assured that it is not corrupt. “We wish to remind that the PPC is a separate constitutional body covered by the constitution in its mandate and is independent from interference from anybody”, Teixeira said. The PPC was appointed by President Mohamed Irfaan Ali in July 2022 and comprises of five members. The members that were sworn in include executive of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Dianna Rajcumar, former Chairman of the National Tender Board, Berkley Wickham, Joel Bhagwandin, Attorney-at- Law, Pauline Chase and Rajnarine Singh. The members were sworn in for a period of three years, effective from July 1, 2022. In January 2024 the Opposition, during the consideration of Estimates for Budget 2024, questioned whether Guyana is receiving value for money after it was revealed that members of the PPC have been paid over $150 million over a period of 18 months in salaries and other benefits but have only managed to produce two investigative reports.
Teixeira in her response then reportedly 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.”
She then added, “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.”
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