The PNCR yesterday issued a call to the government to publish the names of individuals and companies that have been awarded contracts since for sometime now it has been awarding substantial contracts without saying who are the awardees.
The PNCR in a press statement said that there must be some major political reason for the adoption of this approach for the award of contracts.
“This is not difficult to discern, since the Jagdeo administration continues to award substantial contracts to its cronies and is, therefore, reluctant to publish their names in the media,” the opposition party charged.
As a consequence, the PNCR said, it cannot be determined whether contracts are being awarded in an equitable manner or whether political considerations predominate.
The party added that the administration should in the interest of transparency ensure that the names of the individuals and companies are published when contracts are awarded in the future.
The PNCR also contended that the government has repeatedly said that it believes in transparency and accountability when it comes to the award of contracts, but in this as in other matters, its behaviour belies its utterances.
According to the party, it is evident that the PPP/C administration does not wish to have any effective National Assembly oversight of its public procurement practices.
The PNCR also pointed to what it said was the continued resistance of the administration to efforts to establish the constitutionally mandated Public Procurement Com-mission and to ensure that the Office of the Auditor General is fully autonomous and urgently provided with the resources to conduct value-for-money audits.
