‘Govt. knew long ago of Region 8 engineer’s operations’

Oct 09, 2024 News

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– MP. Mahipaul says blocking of $28M contract calculated to distract public  

 

“Opposition Member of Parliament , Ganesh Mahipaul claims ‘Govt. knew long ago of Region 8 engineer’s operations’”

 

 

Kaieteur News – Member of Parliament Ganesh Mahipaul has poured cold water on the government’s recent decision to block the award of a $28M contract to a firm owned by the Regional Engineer in Region Eight, Latchman Singh.

Mahipaul said the move was calculated to distract attention away from the bigger picture. According to Mahipaul, Singh is no stranger to the Ministry of Public Works and Amerindian Affairs. “Our intelligence is clear: whenever PPP/C ministers grace Region 8, they are wined and dined at Lene’s Restaurant and Bar, owned by the same individual behind Lene’s Contracting Enterprise,” Mahipaul said.

He explained that there was an instance where Singh stood before the Public Accounts Committee and accused a Regional Executive Officer (REO) of directing him to undertake illegal activities under the APNU/AFC administration. “But one must ask, who directed him to open a contracting company and who is instructing him to do wrong things now? Could it be a PPP/C Minister pulling the strings behind the scenes?” he questioned.

He advised that the citizens must not be deceived by surface level optics and the government wants them to believe that they are addressing the issues, however “this is just a calculated distraction.” Mahipaul is of the opinion that the government “knows fully well who this engineer is, and they continue to enable his actions in Region 8. Now, with elections on the horizon, they are attempting to sell us on a false narrative of reform.”

Furthermore, Mahipaul disclosed that there is a PPP/C Regional Councillor in Region 8, reportedly very close to Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai. Mahipaul said the said contractor receives a lot of contracts in Region One. “The time will come when their names, faces, and company will be exposed. But make no mistake—this is the most corrupt government Guyana has ever seen and we cannot allow ourselves to be blindsided by their games,” he said.

On Monday, this publication reported that Singh was told to decide whether he wants to be an employee of the State or work as a private contractor after he had won the $28M contract through the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).

While responding to a Stabroek News editorial last week at his newspaper, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo exposed the issue. He said there are complaints that persons may be influenced or they may be violating procurement laws because of instructions they receive or they may even lack awareness of the law and what it has provisions in place for. However, he said the current administration has embarked on a campaign to fix all of this and they have made it clear that non-adherence to the law will not be tolerated at a political level. “So people know now that they are responsible for compliance with the procurement laws and that they will bear the consequences should we find breach. We have already seen that from the time we spoke on one visit to Region Eight last week, we got a number of things,” he said.

Giving an example of one such situation where the laws were breached, he told reporters of the case with Singh. “One engineer there in the region…so he is based in Mahdia and then put in a bid through the public process, an open bidding process but through NPTAB and got a contract for $28M because they just looked at whoever had the best bid, but this guy is also the regional engineer.” The engineer however did not submit his bid through the regional system, instead he submitted via an open public tender, and received the bid to do work in Mahdia.

“Now if you’re an engineer and you’re based in Mahdia working for the RDC and you’re the contractor for a project in Mahdia, people wouldn’t care if it’s NPTAB that gave that and you participated in an open bid, this is the kind of conflict I spoke of,” Jagdeo stressed.

The VP is of the opinion that as an employee of the government, you cannot also be a contractor for government project as well, hence the engineer will have to make a choice which path to follow as he cannot assume both roles. Additionally, a number of other issues were exposed to the officials during the outreach and the government is working to address them, Jagdeo said.  “People are now bringing this to our attention, we didn’t know the NPTAB didn’t know I asked them, they said we don’t know this guy is the regional engineer, he bid through an open process. They did not know. Once this comes to our attention, people have to make a determination,” the VP said.

‘Govt. knew long ago of Region 8 engineer’s operations’

 

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• APNU/AFC administration, Bharrat Jagdeo, Contract, Engineer, Ganesh Mahipaul, Government, Member of Parliament, National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, PPP/C

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