After internal audit uncovers breaches in tendering process from 2019

THE procurement process at the Maritime Administration Department has been restructured in response to discrepancies discovered in 2019.
This is according to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Works Vladim Persaud who, along with a team, was before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for the examination of the Auditor General’s report for the year 2019 for the then Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
The Auditor General’s report in relation to MARAD, which falls under the purview of the ministry, stated that in 2019, a contract was awarded for the acquisition of spares with the entire sum of $351.3 million paid to the supplier.

Further to this, it was noted that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) approved a variation later for the sum of $400.2 million, which was more than the original contract sum.

Consequently, Member of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj questioned the necessity of opting for that particular variation instead of reissuing the project for tender.
“Can we be told why is it we need to go for a variation that and this variation represents 114% of the initial contract sum and whether we would not have had better value for money if we had gone to retendering?” he asked while noting that they could have possibly received a better deal through that process.

To this end, Persaud who was not permanent secretary of the ministry at that time, said that the procurement process that was followed was not in compliance with the internal protocols.
He revealed, “These are matters that were investigated through internal audit and since then we have taken several decisions not only to restructure the way procurement is done and ensuring that they are synchronised with how the national procurement system operates or what is prescribed by law.”

In addition to these actions that were taken since the discovery of that audit, several persons were relieved of their duties while the board was also changed.
Persaud further noted that they discovered that these were lapses that should not have been made at the level of the director general of that agency at the time. While he added that they cannot correct what has happened during that time, they have since put in place several measures in terms of strengthening the procurement protocols and contract management among other things.

He said, “I don’t want to speculate whether it would have been more efficient then, we have discovered that several areas were breached in the context of what should have applied then and as such we have now as an agency, MARAD and also as the parent ministry, ministry of public works have changed the entire system with regards to strengthening three critical areas.”