…NPTAB Chair warns evaluators against ‘peer pressure’

GUYANA is moving towards modern public financial management systems, which will radically change the country’s procurement regulations.

This is according to Chairman of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), Berkley Wickham, during his opening remarks at a two-day Inter-American Development Bank and NPTAB Evaluators Workshop that commenced Wednesday at the Marriott Hotel.

The theme of the workshop is “Principles of tender evaluation and best practices”.
Wickham told the diverse gathering of public sector officials that poor and untested practices that happened in the past cannot be compared with proper practices. This is especially the case when faced with legal challenges and “not knowing the rules is not a winning defence.”

The NPTAB Head said new methods of procurement and evaluation criteria will become more specific and a little more complicated. “With the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission, local contractors are now more than ever resorting to bid protest, whether frivolous or not, and in so doing evaluators find themselves in the spotlight of scrutiny over their recommendations,” he noted.

Further, he said often the media engage in the process of second guessing procurement decisions and procurement decisions are also subject to public audit. For these reasons, Wickham said continuous training is essential and this complements training sessions done annually by the NPTAB.

Recommending tips used by a consultancy firm in Canada, the NPTAB Head said evaluation is a group activity and there is need to put the activity as a priority when called upon, since there can be no defence for failing to meet fairness or timeframes required in each evaluation.

Secondly, he said defending a decision afterwards is no substitute for doing things properly the first time and conflicts of interest and bias are bad news for the defensibility of an evaluation.

Thirdly, Wickham noted that evaluators should always have notes and records because lack thereof means there is no defence, “you should be able to have the notes on how the evaluation was conducted.”

The NPTAB Head concluded by advising the participants that they should: “avoid peer pressure, you should be ready to stand behind what you sign for and no one involved in evaluation is above the law when it comes to protecting the integrity of the tendering process, all are involved and all are consumed.”