When will the curse be removed from the agriculture sector?

Apr 24, 2024 Letters

Dear Editor,

This is in reference to the Tepui contract (April 22). The taxpayers are being taken for a ride in the Tepui award and hundreds of others over the last three years in the hundreds of billions of dollars. It is estimated that some 53% of the national budget gets looted by government officials. It means almost a trillion dollars was looted over the last three and a half years.

Mr. Jagdeo in response to a reporter’s question about the contract blamed the evaluators for approving a contract that is in serious violation of the tendering regulations. But the VP knows exactly how and why Tepui got the contract. Wasn’t instruction given to approve it? Who gave the order?

Inside sources said the evaluators had opposed the tender of Tepui saying the contractor did not meet the minimum requirements for constructing pump stations. But the evaluators were overruled and instructed to approve Tepui tendering. Can the VP comment on who gave instruction to award the contract to Tepui?

The Tepui contract is among a long list of irregularities in approval of tenders with overbidding by the tens of billions of dollars. Another more egregious one is that from cabinet minutes number CP2024-03 for procurement of Geotextile materials for embankment against flooding in Region 6. A popular firm was sole sourced for materials for $296,412,480.00 from NDIA, Ministry of Agriculture. (NPTAB No: 129/2024/21.)

Contractors told me the actual tender should be about $81,000,000. That means government overpaid the contractor some $215,000,000 extra for same materials.

The said contractor previously was awarded a contract on tendering for sheet piling. Although nearly four times the next highest bid, the contractor was approved for the contract.

Question has been asked whether the Minister of Agriculture is residing in the house in Eccles owned by the contractor. If so, is it not a conflict of interest? Is the Minister in the process of purchasing the property from the contractor? The contractor reportedly got approval for billions of dollars in contracts from the government. It is not known if all of that company’s bids were the highest among several tenders. The latest sole-sourced one on geotextile with an approval that is $215 Million over bid is very troubling. Why it was not tendered?

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