President of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Chetram Singh yesterday vowed that the board’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held as scheduled and revealed that its audited accounts for last year will be handed over to the Registrar of the Friendly Societies this morning -paving the way for the AGM.
The holding of the AGM was thrown into question following a letter to Singh from the Registrar of the Friendly Societies, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, on January 5th which instructed that the AGM not be advertised until the audited accounts are handed over as is required. The board’s accounts for last year have been the subject of much concern for some members.
The election race for the next president of the GCB – Singh has indicated that he would not be running – has been heating up.
Singh told Stabroek News yesterday that the audited accounts by the firm contracted by the board were handed over to the GCB’s Regent Street office late Friday afternoon but he was unable to sign the report-which is required. Singh said it is required that he and the treasurer sign the report but because it got to the office at around 5pm on Friday this was not done. He assured that it would be done today and the accounts will be handed over to the Friendly Societies.
In the letter, which Singh said he received last week Monday, Abdul-Jabar said that he was not in receipt of a completed audit report, nor the annual returns for the period. He pointed out that he could not guarantee that the audited report would be reviewed and released in time for the AGM scheduled on January 30. As a result the head of the Friendly Societies, which falls under the Minister of Labour, advised that the AGM not be advertised until the release of the audited report.
“The AGM will be held this month end, I can tell you it would be held and the audited accounts will be handed over to the Friendly Societies first thing this morning,” Singh told Stabroek News yesterday.
Meanwhile, some in the divided executive of the GCB are questioning why Abdul-Jabar’s letter did not come to the attention of all board members during the executive meeting convened last week Friday.
“We were surprised when we read about the letter in yesterday’s [Saturday] edition of the Kaieteur News, that was the first time we knew, that something was wrong. The president should have made this letter known to all of us…” one executive member said yesterday.
Asked why the letter was not a subject for discussion during Friday’s meeting Singh told Stabroek News that it was a letter addressed to him and as such he did not see the need to discuss it at that executive meeting.
However, sources pointed out that the letter addressed cricket matters and was of such magnitude that it could stall the holding of the AGM and as such Singh was required to bring it to the attention of the executive.
“That is what we have been saying for quite sometime, even though there is an executive only two or three persons on the executive are running the board and are in total control…” the source said yesterday.
The source suggested that the AGM be postponed and an Interim Management Committee be appointed to run the board as he does not have any confidence in the audited accounts that will be handed over to the Friendly Societies.
“I would have concern with that audited report as the (auditing firm) was just handed figures and it was based on those figures that the report was compiled. The company did not go into the board and conduct a forensic audit so they have no way of knowing if the figures handed over are flawed,” the source said.
The GCB has been in the spotlight since early last year following an acid attack on assistant Treasurer Pritipaul Jaigobin. Jaigobin had publicly said he was attacked because of queries he made about the finances at the board level. Since the incident, there have been several revelations surrounding the cost for the LBI hostel and the fact that the hostel along with one at Anna Regina had defects. There was also no defects liability period in the contracts under which they were built.
After the attack on Jaigobin, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony had summoned the executive body to a meeting and one of the things coming out of the meeting was for a forensic audit to be done of the board’s finances. Yesterday one executive member questioned why the forensic audit was not done.
Hostels
And some executive members are also upset that the report done by Design and Construction Services Limited (DCSL), which has been submitted to the board, was not shared with all members. All that was circulated was something described as an “executive summary”, a one-page document that was handed out at the last executive meeting.
Singh told Stabroek News yesterday that the document is 100 pages long and it was not convenient to make this available at the meeting but he did indicate that those board members who wanted to a copy could get one from the GCB’s office.
However, board members that this newspaper spoke to said this was not told to them by Singh but they said that they will be approaching the board’s office as they would like to read the report instead of an executive summary. It was pointed out that the board paid some $800,000 for the report to be done – one of the decisions taken during the meeting with Dr Anthony – and as such all board members should know what the findings were.
According to the executive summary – seen by this newspaper – DCSL was indentified by the sports ministry to conduct a detailed review of the design, bill of quantities (BOQ) and overall construction of the LBI and Anna Regina hostels.
According to DCSL several limitations were encountered in conducting the review, the most notable one being the “lack of sufficient information to enable a comprehensive audit.”
“In some instances, DCSL was forced to rely on assumptions in order to complete calculations necessary for the overall examination of the projects. Nevertheless, we have based our assumptions on the standards and methods we have employed in similar designs over the years,” the executive summary of the report said.
The report said it found that despite the numerous limitations it concluded that the LBI facility appears to have been built in accordance with the design specifications.
As for the Anna Regina hostel the company said that “we could not conclusively state whether the facility was built in accordance with the design specifications due to the numerous conflicting information in the bills of quantities and design drawings.”
“In addition, the financial records submitted showed payment in excess of the contracts sum for works which were not documented. Unless the consultant provides a breakdown of the payments, DCSL cannot say whether the amount of money spent is justified.”
The report further said that recommendations were made for both projects and if these are adopted it would allow for transparency and successful implementation of future projects.
Sources yesterday said that they would like to read the entire report as one of the bones of contention was that both hostels were falling apart shortly after they were built and they want to see the pronouncements on this and other critical issues.
Late last year Stabroek News was told that it was the lowest bidder in the tendering process who received the contract to build the cricket hostel at LBI even though there were some objections and the contractor’s price went up significantly thereafter.
This newspaper was told that there was public tendering in relation to the LBI hostel put up by the GCB and a five-man team oversaw it.
The company that was finally chosen had submitted the lowest bid, which was much lower than the engineer’s estimate. Sources had indicated that the contractor, who added another $26 million to the original sum approved by the board, was awarded the contract because a person close to the board has connections to the company. It was the same contractor, according to sources, who did construction work for the person close to the board.
“Two persons on the team objected to the contractor being awarded the contract, but three wanted it and they used their majority to give it to him,” sources had told Stabroek News at the time.
According to sources, there were serious concerns that the contractor would not have been able to build the hostel for the amount of money that was entered in his bid and the fears were confirmed when the contractor added on more money even before he inked the contract.
Sources had told Stabroek News that while many believed the sum to build the hostel was more than the contractor placed in the bid, it was never expected that the cost would have been over $60 million.
This newspaper was also told that the administrator of the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB), who also holds the position of treasurer, “puts all the arrangements in place,” where tendering for services and projects are concerned.
A source in the Region Two cricket division told this newspaper yesterday that transportation, catering and supply of needed services for board events in the division are normally selected by the administrator.
Ideally, it was noted, a budget should be prepared by the ECB, and submitted to the umbrella body in the city.
The current procedure came into practice after the last elections at the ECB.
The contractor for the Anna Regina cricket hostel was appointed via selective tendering, where the administrator identified “about four contractors and they were all given documents”.
The GCB met and examined the documents and the lowest bid was selected.
