“ANY contractor, any supplier, any bidder or any citizen who possess any evidence of collusion between engineers, supervisory firms, consultants or contractors, that are robbing the treasury of valuable resources, bring it to my attention and there will be condign action taken in whichever sector and regardless of political affiliations.”

This was the assurance given by Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Bishop Juan Edghill, when questioned about suspect practices in the procurement process.
According to him, once the evidence of malpractices is produced the involved parties will be confronted.
“President Donald Ramotar has made it very clear to us (the Cabinet) that Government’s work and Government’s development thrust has nothing to do with Party affiliations, we have to get the job done. The Guyanese people want the work done,” he told the Guyana Chronicle in an invited comment.
The Minister also made it clear that this extends to even Government Ministers, as politics must be kept out of the procurement process to ensure that a level of transparency and accountability is maintained.
“If there is any Minister that is influencing the award of a contract based on political considerations, it will be a grave injustice and this needs to be addressed. The President does not condone this kind of action,” he stressed.

CRACKDOWN
Edghill stated that his policy is an “open door” one and he reiterated that there is an active move to crackdown on malpractices in the procurement sector.
“We have to manage as a Government and follow the various rules, wherever a matter has been raised with us, if there is culpability on the part of public officers or on the part of contractors, they will be dealt with accordingly,” he said.
He also stated that one of the measures being taken is greater scrutiny of the reports from evaluators involved in the procurement process.
“We have been working – more specifically we want the evaluation reports to stand scrutiny,” the Minister said.
PRE-BID MEETINGS
Additionally, Edghill told the Chronicle that there is a move to have pre-bid meetings with stakeholders, as another means to ensure a transparent and efficient procurement process.
“In a pre-bid meeting we are inviting all interested persons to a meeting…all the persons who purchase a bid documents, we can meet and go through the process, we have our engineers talk to them so queries can be addressed,” he explained.
The Minister rejected the assertion that there could be collusion, stating that there will be no individual meetings; rather there will be group meetings.
“We are not meeting with them individually; we are meeting with them as a group…there could not be collusion…if it is a case where the contractors want to use the pre-bid meeting to come in with bids higher than the engineers’ estimate, it would be futile. The evaluators for the award of any particular contract will be hard pressed to show why the award should be made above the engineers’ estimate, the same way they would have to if the bids came in below the engineers’ estimate,” he said.
Edghill was emphatic in pointing out that concrete mechanisms to crackdown on malpractices are seen via disciplinary measures. “This has been happening,” he assured.
There have been moves across the Region to improve the procurement process in Caribbean countries.
In mid-September, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat convened three regional consultations to discuss the findings of a major consultancy on Government procurement in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
In a prior interview, commenting on local moves to improve the procurement process, the Attorney-General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, in an invited comment, explained that while Guyana stands out among its Caribbean counterparts, there is always room for improvement.
“Our procurement process is one that stands out…Guyana stands out in the CARICOM Region as having perhaps the most advanced and most transparent procurement procedures…our procurement process is one that is always under scrutiny and there is always room for improvement,” he said.
The AG added that at a recent meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, the country was found to be using Guyana’s procurement process as a model.
“They are now laying a White Paper in their Parliament, in which they are discussing the promulgation of a Procurement Act that is similar to ours,” he said.
According to the AG, the local procurement process is not perfect and as such remains under the scrutiny of the public, the media corps, financiers and other stakeholders.
Guyana hosted a national procurement symposium last week under the theme ‘Empowering bidders, ensuring responsiveness; advancing accountability, fairness and transparency in public procurement’.

(By Vanessa Narine)