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Permanent Secretary and procurement

Jul 09, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mae Toussaint Jr. Thomas has said that she is “innocent” of all that has been placed against her name.  The US Treasury Department, along with other US agencies, took its time and then dropped the sanctions hammer on the PS and two other Guyanese.  Treasury’s OFAC noted that there is a “network” of corruption in Guyana and that it includes “government officials.”  Guyanese are still at sea about how vast this corruption network reaches, or how high, and the PPPC Government has been very careful to say no more than is necessary.  Nonetheless, there is no denying the facts: the US has sanctioned three Guyanese of considerable local standing, of which former PS Thomas is one, but she has asserted her innocence, and not just once.

Another fact that has surfaced in another section of the media (SN, July 7, 2024) is that under PS Thomas’s watch a bid that was the highest by the considerable margin of $210M was the one awarded the contract to build a Fire Station.  Yet another fact: a permanent secretary is a figure of power in a ministry.  That said one that is corrupt could cause a lot of damage, not just to his or her ministry of responsibility, but to the machinery of the government of the day.  Though a PS has this kind of presence, and a corrupt one can undermine clean governance, we at this paper absorb that winning bid that was so much over the engineer’s estimate as to be jaw-dropping, and ask who else could be involved in what must have been beyond the call of the PS.  A bid that is so way over the engineer’s estimate, and for a bidder that had no experience in that kind of project, to still emerge as the winning one points to heights above former PS Thomas’s head.  She has insisted that she is innocent, and if that holds true, then a set of questions is raised.

Who is responsible for that bid winning?  Who is she covering up for, and not just for that award, but likely other situations still not disclosed to the public?  Why is she willing to have her name tarnished, and that of her family a source of mockery and disdain?  Who else is involved in the US Treasury Department’s declaration of a corruption “network” in Guyana and how high does it go?  There are a number of other possible candidates whose names surface in the search for answers to some of these questions.  The National Tender and Procurement Administration (NPTAB) has been whipsawed by criticisms that the quality of its work, particularly adhering to evaluation criteria, reeks of either the reckless or the foul.  Contract awards made by NPTAB for huge amounts of taxpayer dollars have ranged from the puzzling to the mindboggling.  Entities and principals that may not be able to distinguish between a hammer and a spade have won bids for big projects.  Corruption or coincidence, that is the question.  Regarding which it is, the deficient officers seem to live a charmed life, with the irresponsible not being called to the hot seat and dealt with severely.  The oversight Public Procurement Commission (PPC) has done some due diligence that is worth passing mention with other public works projects.  The truth, however, is that the PPC only got going after much public outcry.  It manifested a lack of urgency in dealing with hot button issues, and closed out what fell just short of a charade with some inexplicable gaps in its recommendations.  Some schools of thought in the local environment weigh who and what could be acting as a restraint on the hand of the PPC.  Why is it so cautious, fearful of following the corruption trail wherever such leads, and detailing actions that just must be taken.

We study all this and wonder again about extent of the US “network” of Guyanese corruption, and how interrelated and interlocking it is.  That is, where one cog protects the others, and with all the other parties falling in line to do their cover up duty.  Public procurement is a prosperous business in Guyana.  It has powerful protectors.

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