Dear Editor,
A section of the media published the full list of agencies that forensic audits were conducted, the names of the auditors and the value for the first 45 contracts. Whilst the name of the auditors for those funded by IDB (Nos 46 -50) were revealed no contract value was mentioned.
Several public requests made weeks ago for IDB to make public the names and contract value of the auditing and the procurement process used to contract these auditors have to date not being made available to the public by the IDB. But given the publication of the names of the auditors and the fact that no public advertisement or procurement process were done for them it is clear that these auditors financed by the IDB has been single-sourced by the bank.
Considering that the entities in question (GPL, GWI, GNSL, GRA, LPC) are large and complex entities, it is reasonable to project that the cost will be simple or higher for similar large entities like Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Guy Oil, Gold Board, GPL, GRA and GWI and it is reasonable to estimate that the cost of these audits will be in the range of $8-10M.
Five entities at $10M per audit means that the IDB has single sourced contracts to the value of $50M in approximate value.
The non-disclosure and refusal of IDB to make this information public is also worrisome and suspicious and points to a lack of transparency and corruption in IDB’s procurement process.
IDB cannot possibly justify sole sourcing as an acceptable method of procurement in this case when there is such a large pool of qualified and available accountants and auditors in Guyana.
This multimillion-dollar deal must be immediately put on hold and the IDB head office, regional country manager and IDB board must conduct urgent investigation to the alleged acts of corruption, mismanagement and misuse of resources inclusive of the lack of transparency in the contracting of these forensic auditors. A criminal misconduct investigation must also not be ruled out.
Yours faithfully,
James Cornelius
