Govt invites bids for construction of Hope and Justice Centre

The Human Services and Social Security Ministry is moving to construct a Hope and Justice Centre at Vergenoegen, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), and has issued an Invitation for Bids (IFB) for eligible and qualified entrepreneurs desirous of providing their services.
That Ministry has liaised with the Legal Affairs Ministry, to ensure victims of all forms of violence can easily access legal representation through hope and justice centres.
Once established, the Hope and Justice Centre will offer to persons experiencing violence, a variety of services including legal and medical aid, counselling, and law enforcement, under one roof. The construction period for the centre is a minimum of nine months and will be funded by a loan the Government received from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the Support for the Criminal Justice System Programme.
According to the IFB, bidding will be done through the National Competitive Bidding (NCB) procedures specified in the IDB’s Policies for Procurement of Work and Goods financed by the bank and is open to all bidders from Eligible Source Countries as defined in the Policies.
Interested bidders may obtain further information on the project from the Procurement Officer—Support for the Criminal Justice System Programme. All bids must be submitted with the relevant documents and a $2,716,080 bid security.
The address of bid submission and opening is Chairman, National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), Main and Urquhart Streets, Georgetown.
The Support for the Criminal Justice Programme is a US$8 million project to help Guyana overcome prison overcrowding, by reducing pre-trial detentions and increasing the use of alternative sentencing, among other measures. The loan’s objective is to contribute to the high concentrations of the prison population in the country, which stands at 256 per 100,000 of the national population, well above the world average of 146 per 100,000.
“The Guyanese criminal justice system tends to use incarceration as the default sanction. However, high rates of imprisonment have been associated with an individual’s future proclivity for crime and difficulties in securing employment, among other negative factors. Building or expanding prison facilities can be a short-term fix for overcrowding, but if root causes are not addressed, the new facilities will eventually be filled,” a release on IDB’s website noted.
The project is divided into two components. The first component seeks to reduce the use of pre-trial detention, especially for individuals accused of minor offences. The idea is to provide better legal assistance to individuals accused of non-violent offences, improve the prosecutors’ ability to handle cases according to the seriousness of the offence, strengthen the Judiciary, and design and implement a restorative justice programme.
A second component seeks to increase the use of alternative sentencing by the criminal justice system in Guyana. This includes strengthening the country’s legal drafting functions, modernising probation services, and implementing a pilot project at the Magistrate Court level to apply alternatives to imprisonment to non-violent offenders. (G1)