Junior Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker has defended the recent award of major regional security contracts to three companies, rejecting suggestions by the private security association that favoritism was exercised in the process.
“As a matter of policy, we advertised and in this instance it was no different. When you place advertisements in the national newspapers the presumption is that everybody would have seen the ad,” Whittaker was quoted as saying by the Government Information Agency (GINA) in a report on Wednesday.
He was at the time responding to criticism by the Guyana Association of Private Security Organisa-tions (GAPSO), which said its members were unaware of advertisements for large contracts for the provision of security services in the regions and raised concerns that the process was being manipulated. GAPSO also lamented that the government tenders were being advertised in one particular section of the media, the Guyana Chronicle.
All the tenders saw billion-dollar bids from three companies: Strategic Action Security, Home Safe Security and RK’s Security Service.
GINA reported Whittaker as having verified that advertisements were published “in the newspapers as well as the website” and quoted him as saying that some of the people who are complaining are the ones who did not respond to the tender advertisement.
It also quoted him as saying that the bids went through the normal procedure and the contracts were subsequently awarded.
GAPSO’s Secretary Retired Colonel George Gomes had said that to place ads only in the state newspaper was unfair to bidders.
“Who buys the Chronicle? Big contracts like these should be put in other newspapers. Nobody buys the Chronicle. I think that it is put there knowing that the wider public won’t see it. We [are] talking about billions of dollars here. You mean big money contract like that and three people alone bid?” he queried.
Further, Gomes said that he checks government’s e-procure website daily and the contracts were not advertised there. He complained that “every time is something with that site.”
Bidders for government contracts had expressed concerns in the past that they would miss notifications of contracts if there was not adequate coverage in the print media or online. They had also argued that the uneven publicising of contracts works in favour of some bidders.
The e-procure website was meant to have all of the ads that are being run in the Guyana Chronicle but this is not the case. A visit by Stabroek News recently to the website (http://www.eprocure.gov.gy/) revealed that there was little effort at updates to the online portal, which was meant to be a hub for persons to see all requests for proposals and invitation for bids to supply goods and services and vacancies. Many of the posts on the site were dated 2011.
Meanwhile, Chief Execu-tive Officer of RK’s security Service, Roshan Khan, whose company was one of the bidders referred to by GAPSO, also issued a statement reiterating that the association was not only tarnishing his company’s name but that the contracts were advertised in the Chronicle and he had read it.
“Maybe they do not read the newspapers or because of their political alliances they do not read the Chronicle. That is their right and business, I do, and others do… if they are worth their salt as a security association, the leaders, with all their mouths could have investigated by checking copies of the Chronicle for the month of December and January,” stated Khan in the release.
