…with procurement law barring entity-bidder negotiations
By Jarryl Bryan
The several instances where the coalition Government has admitted it annulled tenders to procure goods and services and sole-sourced contractors are being classified as potential breaches of Guyana’s law.
Section 40 of Guyana’s Procurement Act states that permission from the National
Opposition PPP/C Member of Parliament, Juan Edghill
Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) must be sought before sole sourcing.
But Section 41 of the Act prohibits the procuring entity, in most cases the relevant Ministry, from engaging in any negotiation with any of the bidders. According to former Minister within the Finance Ministry, Juan Edghill, this is in fact what may have been happening.
“The fact that you are sole sourcing suggests that. Because, for example, the Sussex Street bond. How did Mr Larry Singh know that the Government had need of a bond? It was never publicly advertised.”
“So when things are sole sourced, it causes speculation that there is an arrangement or some form of consideration. And that is why we are demanding
A tender for works on the Camp Street Prison was annulled
(that the) process be followed. Every sole-sourced contract is an arrangement, whether it’s ANSA McAL, Georgetown Prisons, Sussex Street Bond, whether it’s D’Urban Park….,” Edghill posited.
Last year, the Government cancelled a tender seeking a contractor to carry out feasibility studies into the new Demerara River bridge. In the process, it abandoned bids from 22 local and foreign contractors and sole-sourced the service from a Dutch company.
Then, it recently came to light that the Government cancelled a tender for the multimillion-dollar reconstruction of the administrative blocks for the Georgetown prison. The project was being undertaken by the Public Infrastructure Ministry.
A total of 20 companies had been shortlisted from a prequalification process and
The controversial Sussex Street bond
were invited by the Permanent Secretary, Geoffrey Vaughn to conduct a site visit on July 27, 2017. They were to respond by the following day on whether or not they would be submitting a bid for the project.
The visit was the following day rescheduled by the Ministry’s Work Services Group Manager for Procurement and Contracts, Philip Bryan. The procurement manager, by way of email, a copy of which was seen by this publication, indicated that the site visit for the project was rescheduled for the following day, Friday, July 28, 2017.
On July 28, 2017, acting Permanent Secretary Vaughn wrote again to the bidders saying, “The Ministry regrets to inform you that a decision was taken by the executing agency to annul this bid.”
Vaughn then pointed to a clause which speaks to the “employer’s right to accept any bid and to reject any or all bids”.
The Ministry has since said that the process was annulled because it was not the subject Ministry. According to the Ministry, it was just providing “technical support” for the Public Security Ministry.
In the case of the Sussex Street, Albouystown bond, the Opposition had once again approached the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), this time calling for an investigation into a contract inked between the Public Health Ministry and a known financier of the coalition Administration.
The formal request was made by Edghill, who last week wrote to PPC Chairperson Carol Corbin, indicating that the political Opposition was demanding “a definitive pronouncement specifically addressing if this award was done in a fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective manner according to our procurement laws”.
The former Government Minister wants the Procurement Commission to investigate specifically how a contract for a bond for the storage of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies was sole-sourced from an entity that did not own and/or operate such a facility and further, “how was the company’s primary director, Larry Singh, made aware that a drug bond was needed”.
Given the argument presented by the Health Ministry in defence of the contract – Edghill is also looking to ascertain “who made the decision to sole source and under what circumstances; what was the emergency referred to by the Minister”; and how Linden Holdings Inc was engaged to ink a contract.
