Review of evaluation criteria for contractors needed – VP Jagdeo

– Opposition calls for investigation into NPTAB’s public procurement system

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo is of the view that the criteria used to evaluate contractors for government projects may need to be revised to develop a workable and realistic formula following the controversial award of the multimillion-dollar contract to a fairly new company with limited experience.
“We have to ensure that there is no arbitrariness in the application of evaluation criteria. And if you know that the market does not have enough bidders, so you’re going out for 17 contracts and you can’t give all 17 to one or two persons with the experience but you want all 17 [projects] to be constructed, you have to craft the evaluation criteria in a manner that would allow you to stick rigidly with it,” Jagdeo said at his weekly press conference on Thursday, where he was asked about government’s plans to strengthen the evaluation criteria during the tender process.

His comments come on the heels of the controversy surrounding the award of a $865 million contract to Tepui Group for the construction of a pump station at Bell Vue, West Bank Demerara (WBD).
The Public Procurement Commission (PPC) has raised several issues regarding the award of the contract to the company that is associated with Mikhail Rodrigues, popularly known as ‘Guyanese Critic.’
Based on a complaint by former Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson, the PPC launched an investigation into the contract award and found, among other things, that the company was only established in August 2022 and therefore failed to meet the technical requirements of the bid documents, which stated that the successful bidder must have successfully completed projects of a similar nature and size within the last three years.

But the Vice President on Thursday argued that even companies with years of experience also face challenges and delays in executing projects.
“Now, I’ve seen this thing about because they don’t have prior experience, that there’s a problem. [But] I’ve seen contractors and contracts that have a long track record of prior experience and the projects are now delayed too. So, delay is a function of the particular project and often it’s not about the contractors who have the capacity because many of the contractors who have the full capacity, have so much work to do that even the contracts they have now, they’re not fulfilling on time. We’ve seen numerous cases of that,” Jagdeo stated.
Already, the Vice President has defended the decision by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to award the contract to Tepui Group. He had noted that a multi-agency evaluation committee, comprising representatives from the Guyana National Bureau of Standards and the Ministries of Agriculture and Finance, had reviewed the bid and submitted a report to NPTAB, which then made recommendations to Cabinet on the award of the contract.
Moreover, Jagdeo pointed out that new contractors would often be hired by the government to keep pace with the ongoing rapid development in the infrastructure sector.
He said at last week’s press conference that, “You have to have new contractors. We are building 19 pump stations and you have very few people with the capacity to build all 19… So, often you have to bring new contractors who may not have the full experience, but you have to see if they have the comparable skills and have rigid supervision of the contracts.”
Meanwhile, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Parliamentary Opposition has since called for a full investigation into NPTAB and the PPC over the contract award to Tepui Group.
Chairman of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNCR) – the leading party in the APNU, Shurwayne Holder, contended at the party’s weekly press conference on Thursday that NPTAB awarding contracts to inexperienced companies is a breach of the procurement laws.
To this end, the Opposition calls for a full and thorough investigation of NPTAB and the public procurement system; the enactment of legislation to give the PPC clear-cut powers to revoke contracts and impose penalties whenever breaches, non-compliance, and fraud are discovered; and the urgent drafting and enforcement of regulations by the PPC using its powers under the current procurement act.
Additionally, the Opposition wants the termination of the Tepui contract in keeping with the position of former PPC Chair, Carol Corbyn, who had previously stated that, the Commission should “recommend” to the procuring entity that they terminate certain contracts.
While the PPC had flagged several issues in the award of the Tepui contract, the Commission said it could not do anything about the situation since the contract was already signed. Nevertheless, it has advised the project to be strictly monitored for performance and if the contractor is found in breach, that the necessary steps, including termination, be taken.
Following the release of the PPC report, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh had noted last week that the “extremely important” observations and recommendations of the Commission will be carefully studied by the government and actions will be taken where appropriate. One of the areas that the minister said corrective actions may be needed in the PPC’s observations regarding consistency between bidding documents and instructions to bidders. (G-8)