Dear Editor,
After a plethora of negative reports on the alleged clandestine and corrupt award of the $120 million ‘split contracts’ to slash the shoulders of the Corentyne Highway, the Public Infrastructure Ministry (MoPI) is yet to make a public statement on the issue. Unfortunately, like all other allegations of corruption, the Minister is awaiting the inevitable cooling off period which will inundate and drown the voices against the escalating level of corruption. This type of ‘closure’ is now the trademark of the coalition Government.
In my opinion, if these allegations of corruption are false, then the MoPI should have released the names of the ‘contractors’ to quell the doubts of the public. The public is not in a hurry to forget that it was the coalition Government which campaigned vigorously on the eradication of corruption.
One sitting Minister had claimed that 20 per cent ‘kickbacks’ are inherent in contracts and an economics professor in the coalition had claimed that the previous Government ‘stole’ more than $300 billion annually. These Government Ministers and officials are now so consumed and submerged in corruption that it will take a lifetime for State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) and Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) to tackle these when this Government is inevitably rejected by the Guyanese people.
This $120 million road slashing contract was gift-wrapped and served to seven Alliance For Change (AFC) officials. These ‘contractors’ were summoned and given the contracts which was split. It should be noted that ‘contract splitting’ is illegal but it seems that it was meant to keep Cabinet out of the focus and allow the AFC boys to reap their harvest. All these AFC officials got contracts between $10-15 million each. Some register their companies in their relative names but some have used their own names.
At this point I wish to state that the award of these contracts can never be legal since apart from contract splitting, the contracts were not advertised in newspapers of wide circulation and posted in public places. It must be noted that in this case public tendering is mandatory. I would hardly classify slashing of the road shoulders as emergency work or work of a specialised nature and even prequalification must be advertised widely.
Another illegality is the qualification of these ‘contractors’. The Procurement Act makes it clear that contractors and suppliers must have ‘technical competence, financial resources, equipment and other physical facilities, managerial capability, reliability, experience and reputation and the personnel to perform the contract’. There is now another big scandal since it is apparent that some of these ‘contractors’ have failed to conform to the qualifications criteria as set out in the section quoted above. At least three of them have sub-contracted the work to competent contractors who should have been awarded the contracts in the first place. It is now evident that these AFC ‘contractors’ lack the resources, the competence and the equipment to do the job.
However, the biggest embarrassment is that the workers have not been paid for a period of two months and one of the contractors, who is an AFC national executive member, has flown away on a holiday in the USA. These workers who are from the Number 19 Village went to the home of another AFC Executive member at Fyrish and complained bitterly but went away angrier when they were told that the ‘contractor’ is holidaying in the US. From all indications, it seems that these workers have been ripped off. Moreover, the sub-contractor claimed that he is yet to receive any payment from the AFC contractor, so he cannot pay the workers. It is evident also that the work was not properly executed since freshly grown grass is covering the dried heaps of grass which should have been disposed of.
It is also clear that even where a Ministry or a department or an agency has a duly constituted tender board, that tender board must function in accordance with the Procurement Act and should any action contravene this Act then such an action is null and void. Therefore, the Ministry’s Tender Board must not breach the Procurement Act.
It is time that the details of these contracts made public and a thorough investigation by the Public Procurement Commission done immediately. Region Six has now become the designated hunting ground for these corrupt AFC officials and this is a gross insult to us.
It is time for Region Six to reject the AFC and their parasitic rogues.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councillor,
Region Six
