RESPONDING to questions from media operatives subsequent to the opening statement of his post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President, as to why scrutineers from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are not yet paid, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon yesterday disclosed that the Budget Department has identified a number of irregularities that have already been made known to the Commission. He noted that these instances of irregularities have also been brought to the attention of Cabinet and explanations are being sought as to why the procurement rules and regulations were abandoned.
“All of the delays are hinged on the submission of explanations for those procurement and accounting lapses,” Dr. Luncheon said.
The irregularities fundamentally involved procurement that breached the tender regulations such as sole sourcing and procurement without the approval from the National Procurement and Tender Administration.
“These things are sometimes inexplicable as it couldn’t be lack of knowledge when the vast majority of procurement has been done by the Commission itself,” Dr. Luncheon said. 
The HPS said that somewhere between 2009 and early 2010, Cabinet authorised the payments for the procurement of services (personnel to handle registration and scrutineers).
He maintained that the scrutineers, 50 percent of whom represented the governing party as well as the 50 percent from the Opposition, have all been paid.
Dr. Luncheon said that what the OP sought to do was to ensure that procurement migrated to the E-Procurement website.
He added that 99 percent of the engagement with Central Government, OP, Ministry of Finance, and GECOM has, over the years, not been a matter of conflict, but rather there has been dense collaboration which has led to the successful execution of free and fair elections.
The website (www.eprocure.gov.gy) which is now fully operationalised, is seen as a means of capping the extent of Government expenditure on advertisements and as an intervention at a time when the transformation of the economy by Information Communication Technology (ICT) is materializing. (GINA)