–$3.8M in drugs supplied before region officially requested/paid for it

THE Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), on Monday, uncovered significant discrepancies in the procurement process in Region Five under the APNU+AFC government in 2019.

This was outlined during the committee’s 60th sitting, when they examined the 2019 Auditor General’s report for Region Five, which showed that there were 31 payment vouchers for drugs to the tune of $3.8 million which had bill dates before the requisition to purchase date.

As these discrepancies were uncovered, members of the committee questioned the regional officials who were present on the reason why this occurred; however, none was able to provide a reason for this action.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, said that this has to be flagged as a violation of the procurement arrangement as well as a violation of the administrative procedures in the region in relation to the purchasing of drugs.

“I think the deeper we dig, the worse it gets but clearly this is a violation of administrative procedures to do with purchasing of drugs,” Teixeira said.
She went on to add that several steps regarding the procurement regulations were missed, and noted that the Auditor General found that items were received in February and the request to pay was in September of that year.

Meanwhile, Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, said that it should never be lost on anyone that there is a procurement process which is there to ensure fairness, efficiency and value for money.
He said: “Anytime you have a request to purchase coming after a bill date, it’s not just a minor error, it is not just a minor error… there was no procurement process.”

Edghill went on to add that such a move was in clear contradiction to Guyana’s Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA) and should not have been done.
It was against this backdrop, Minister Teixeira called on the Auditor General’s office to launch an investigation to ascertain whether this occurrence was just recorded here or occurred in other areas in the region.