Dear editor,
I WAS moved to write this letter to highlight to the Government and peoples of this country, the practice of low tenders and the way it is abused by some contractors. I was inspired to do this piece after reading a daunting headline in a national newspaper: “Shoddy Work….Emergency works for Sand Creek Secondary” on Tuesday, 8thAugust, 2017.
This writer is a proud and loyal tax-paying citizen and so I found this to be extremely annoying, disappointing and even painful. It is unfair to us as citizens of this country to receive such haphazard work from contractors. Moreover, I wish to list some of my concerns that cause contractors to underperform in such projects.
Firstly, in the previous Government and in the current Government, there definitely appears in the system of tendering a certain level of corruption and favouritism. This infiltrates the entire process (transparency and accountability) and in some cases translates into the termination of genuinely awarded contracts, so that the confederates of those in power are awarded the contracts. I am currently in possession of damning and deadly evidence that could prove extremely embarrassing to the Government of the day. However, I have not released this to the public just yet.

Further, the policy of tendering is usually, the lowest compliant tenderer wins. This is where the danger lies, because if contractors will tender the lowest cost possible for infrastructural and capital works, it is sometimes confusing to my mind that the evaluators, the Cabinet and/or the ministry cannot understand that this will usually reflect low-quality/shoddy work. This is because they will use the lowest quality cement, would not use hardeners for longevity of the concrete, they will stretch the paint by using paint oil, thinners or water for emulsion paint, all in an effort to maximise their own profits.
In the case of security services, one stands bewildered as to how the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), the ministries’ evaluators and others involved, can award tenders at times to certain security firms when it is obvious that they will resort to improper payments (underpayment of workers), lack the proper supervisory and training programmes which are costly, and would resort to theft of taxes. For security tenders and others which are tendered extremely low for awards, some contractors are known to be involved in the large-scale theft of Value Added Taxes (VAT). Sadly, this can cause an economic crisis and even a social crisis. The employees working for such security companies are not able to claim their NIS as pensioners and have no choice but to use the Public Health Care System and Social Welfare System which inculcates an over-dependency on the Government. This happens because some of these security companies have a tendency of completely stealing the NIS contributions and hoodwinking the National Insurance Scheme by paying only for a small number of employees.
Other companies are known to declare bankruptcy after stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in National Insurance Scheme contributions (plus their part), which adds up to more hundreds of millions of dollars and this is also done with PAYE taxes, thereby augmenting the economic and social crisis in the country.

At this juncture, I thought it pertinent once again as I have been doing over the years to showcase the gaps in the tendering system that contractors have taken advantage of relentlessly. In the previous and current administrations there were clear instances of corruption and manipulation. I hope that the ‘powers that be’ look at this observation very seriously. I would advise that an investigation be launched into such areas which are being exploited by dishonest contractors, both in the construction field and the security industry.
Regards
Roshan Khan Snr