The issue of contractors performance has been a concern for a while as many of them have been performing at unsatisfactory levels and as a result invaluable taxpayers’ monies have gone down the drain and at the same time has brought great discomfort and inconvenience to the populace. One of the difficulties we face in Guyana is that there are not many top notch contractors in the country and sometimes in order to get certain projects done the authorities are forced to give out works to second rated contractors. However, very importantly, those who are charged with the responsibility to oversee and monitor the progress of projects are recalcitrant in executing their duties, and in some cases are in collusion with contractors and as such sub-standard work is the end result.
It is with respect to the latter where there is great concern, and perhaps, herein lays the crux of the problem. There are many contractors in their greed for greater profits “grease the palms” of those equally greedy persons who are in charge of monitoring projects and ensuring that specifications are adhered to, hence the desired quality of work is ensured.
According to Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud, close to 45 percent of infrastructural projects in the Drainage and Irrigation (D&I) sector are behind schedule and a number of them had to be retendered because of poor performance of the contractors and the termination of contracts as a result.
“In fact, we are taking steps to terminate a number of those contracts. I want to issue a word of warning to contractors…that failure to comply within timelines, specifications and others, not only will we be enforcing damages but also we will be moving to terminate contractors who have not been performing, especially in keeping with timelines,” he said.
“If we look at these projects they are all necessary and urgent as [other projects have been previously],” he said.
“These projects form part of our 2011 programme. They have all gone through the public procurement process. These are not projects that were selected or handpicked and given to particular contractors. These are projects that were advertised, went through the procurement process as outlined in our laws and after the necessary valuation and recommendation of award we are here today,” the Minister said.
“If we look at the 11 projects stated here we will all see it is about improving drainage and irrigation across our country and we are doing so in all regions and in all farming areas depending on the availability of resources and being in a position to respond to farmers’ needs and those of other stakeholders,” he said.
“We want stakeholders to have copies of the contract, especially farmers and residents in the particular area where we are doing civil works, so that the public is made aware and be able to help us with monitoring the delivery of these projects,” the agriculture minister said.
“Also, two of the projects here entail the continued building capacity of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) so that we could rely less on contractors and do some more of the work, so as to get greater value for money. It also allows us to have greater flexibility, especially with deploying and re-deploying equipment, especially in times of emergency, [such as] El Nino or La Nina,” he said.
The minister is correct as drainage and irrigation projects are crucial to the livelihood of farmers, food security, the entire agricultural sector and the national economy.
As regards giving stakeholders copies of contracts of projects, this is something which Dr. Cheddi Jagan pushed during his short-lived presidency, and indeed is one of the ways by which skullduggery could be averted. However, in reality very seldom stakeholders actually receive copies of contracts.
Dealing with recalcitrant contractors and their collaborators is troubling, as white collar crimes are a very complex labyrinth, because, even in developed countries with advanced and sophisticated laws and technology corruption is a problem. But that should not be an excuse not to pursue corrupt contractors and their collaborators.
ApatheticVoter.com provides an ideal piece which gives a deep insight on corruption with respect to the US/Iraq war:
“Most of the contracts Halliburton has obtained from the government have been sole source procurement, without a competitive bidding process. Since the invasion of Iraq, Halliburton has seen their share of the pie increase from $468 million to $3.92 billion (the government authorized $30 billion in emergency money to fight terrorism), no doubt because of certain influences in the White House. Oh boy, the fox is in the hen house again.”
“Obviously, Halliburton is not the only scoundrel making off with tidy profits but isn’t someone watching over the hen house?  That’s the job of the Defense Contracts Audit Agency (DCAA), which rarely invokes its power to disbar a contractor from doing business with the government. But DCAA did recommend in a confidential memo that Halliburton should be suspended or debarred from future government contracts. DCAA showed that one of Halliburton’s subsidiaries, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) could not account for $1.8 billion in charges out of a total of $4.3 billion spent on the LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Programme) III contract for the U. S. Army to provide logistical support for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“$1.8 billion lost in the paper work?  We’re not talking about losing track of $3.14. Can you imagine running any business when you really don’t know why or with whom you spent that kind of money?  It’s obvious that none of these clowns have ever worked in the private sector. This is pure, unadulterated nonsense. When they spend that kind of money there must be a paper trail in the form of invoices and cheques, unless the money was handed out in the form of cash. But that’s another issue worthy of an in-depth investigation.”