Attorney at Law Joann Bond will now head the recently-constituted Bid Protest Committee (BPC) established under the Procurement Act, well-placed sources say.
The move comes after the government had earlier announced the appointment of Renee McDonald of the Ministry of Legal Affairs as the Chairperson of the BPC. That announcement was made in a June 26 Ministry of Finance advertisement in the Stabroek News.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon yesterday appeared to be unaware of this when he claimed at a post-cabinet press conference that McDonald had never been appointed.
McDonald’s departure and the appointment of Bond came days after the BPC’s first case—Cevons Waste Management’s protest against the Ministry of Communities over the award of a $221M Haags Bosch landfill maintenance contract- was registered. The Cevons protest is seen as the first major test of transparency in public procurement under the APNU+AFC administration.
On June 26th last, government in a two-page advertisement in this newspaper explained the bid protest procedures and named Mc Donald as the Committee’s Chairperson.
“The NB/Administration shall conduct bid protest reviews though an independent, three (3) person Bid Protest Committee (BPC) comprising :Ms. Renee Mc Donald- Chairperson, Mr. Archibald Clifton and Mr. Ewart Adams,” the advertisement read as it pointed to section 54.4 of the Procurement Act and Section 12.1 of the regulations.
When contacted by Stabroek News on Tuesday, McDonald informed that she was still employed with the Attorney General’s Office and answered in the affirmative that she was no longer with the Bid Protest Committee. She however, pointed this newspaper to Attorney General Basil Williams for answers to other questions posed. “You will have to speak with the Attorney General,” she said.
However, McDonald in a letter said that the article in yesterday’s edition of the Stabroek News titled “Chair of Bid Protest Committee resigns” is false as “I never told Stabroek News that I was appointed Chair of the Bid Protest Committee and did not say to that newspaper that I resigned from the said committee.”
Her claim comes despite Friday’s announcement by Chairman of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), Berkley Wickham at a procurement symposium that the Chairman of the BPC had resigned and a new Chairman had been appointed.
Wickham said “Again, we had a little setback with getting going because the member from the Office of the Ministry of Legal Affairs either was ill or has since resigned, but is no longer available.
“So we are going through the process. We have had a replacement and (are) making sure the person is statutorily appointed and so on but we have had a little setback .We already have one protest before that committee. That committee is new and they will have to come to speed very quickly,” he added.
Despite all of this Harmon was adamant yesterday that Mc Donald was never appointed. “Was that an accurate report in the newspapers?” Harmon questioned Stabroek News when asked for an update on the BPC.
“Was she ever appointed as the Chairman? She was? I don’t think so check with the Minister of Legal Affairs,” he added, when told that not only was the article correct but that Mc Donald was appointed.
According to Harmon the committee has a head who he believes is currently functioning at the NPTAB.
“There is a Bid Protest Committee and the Chairperson, when I reported on that matter, I gave two names and the third person is the person who is recommended by the Minister of Legal Affairs. The Minister of Legal Affairs has made a written appointment to that effect and that person I believe is now working with the National Procurement and Tender Board Administration, right. So as far as I am aware, there was no appointment of that person that I saw in the newspapers today”, the Minister said.
It was Harmon who on June 16th last told reporters at a post-Cabinet press briefing that Attorney General Williams would be the Chairman, when he announced the establishment of the BPC. Under the Act, Williams is supposed to nominate the Chairperson.
The other members, Harmon had said would be former Manager of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, Archie Clifton and Company Secretary of Insurance Brokers Limited, Ewart Adams. Chief Executive Officer of Property Protection Services, Colin Shaw will be a rotating third member.
NPTAB’s Chairman Wickham was not available when Stabroek News visited the agency yesterday to learn more about the BPC as his secretary informed he had gone to a meeting. When contacted around 4:30 pm yesterday she further informed that he would not return to office for the day.
But well-placed sources at the Ministry of Finance confirmed that Bond would now be the Chair.
In Bond’s LinkedIn profile she describes herself as a “Parliamentary Counsel at the Government of Guyana”. She said that she was previously attached to Grace Chambers and Hughes, Fields and Stoby and studied at the University of London.
