A CONTRACT for the provision of fingerprint cross- matching services to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), valued at $30M, has been awarded and has received Cabinet’s no-objection. 

The disclosure was made by Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon yesterday during his weekly post Cabinet press conference at the Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpal Drive.
Additionally, he noted that Cabinet gave its no-objection for another contract, valued at $23.9M, for the construction of a GECOM registration office at Crane, West Coast Demerara
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Richard Francois, was unable to respond to queries by this newspaper when asked for greater details of the two contracts. “At this point I am unaware of such a contract,” he said. When contacted a second time, he was unavailable.
However, the Guyana Chronicle was reliably informed that the fingerprinting and cross-matching services will continue to be offered by Cogent Systems which is a leading international provider of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) based in California, USA.
This company has been the same company that has offered fingerprint cross-matching services to GECOM as far back as 2009.
Also relative to the second contract, this newspaper understands that the new office will house approximately 13 persons in a 40 feet by 60 feet building, who were previously housed in a rented office at Poudreyen, West Bank Demerara.
Given the value of the contracts, Cabinet’s no-objection was needed. Contracts above the $15M mark are taken to Cabinet for its statement of no-objection. Currently, the procurement process is decentralised at the level of ministries, regions, district tender boards and the Ministry of Finance’s tender board.