Cabinet has granted permission for the commissioning of 17 District Tender Boards across Guyana’s ten regions which will be responsible for tendering contracts with sums up to $599,999, Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon has said.
The District Tender Boards will occupy the lowest tier in Guyana’s procurement architecture and the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development will bear the task of setting up the bodies.
Asked the purpose of the District Tender Boards, Minister within the Local Government Ministry Norman Whittaker told Stabroek News that they are expected to speed up the tendering process at the regional level.
As things stand, he explained, all tenders for Guyana’s ten regions are handled by the Regional Tender Boards. As a result, the tendering of contracts for Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) and the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) are handled regionally. The contracts related to RDC projects receive preferential treatment as the regions try to complete their yearly projects on time, while NDC projects suffer as some of them are unable to complete their contracts in a timely manner. The creation of District Tender Boards is expected to correct these problems.
Additionally, Whittaker said that the Fiscal Transfers Act, which was recently assented to by the President, will provide the opportunity for NDCs to raise more funds, therefore enabling them to increase the number of projects they carry out yearly.
This, he said, means that the number of contracts may increase and he further explained that District Tender Boards will enable the NDCs to have contracts for such projects tendered faster than they would have been otherwise.
District Tender Boards will be guided by strict limits as regards issuing contracts in different categories. For the procurement for goods and services, the District Boards will be authorized to grant contracts of $100,000 to $299,999.
The District Boards will also be able to handle the tendering of Consultancy Services where the contract sums are between $100,000 and $399,999.
Finally, contracts for Civil Works and Construction with amounts between $100,000 and $599,000 will also fall within the jurisdiction of District Tender Boards.
Amounts higher than the limits outlined of the respective categories will be handled by the Regional Tender Boards.
