Former Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region Six Dr. Veerasammy Ramayya has distanced himself from the repeated failure of the region’s tender board to award maintenance contracts to the lowest bidder last year.
The 2015 Auditor General’s report states that while $504.853 million of $518.738 million allocated for maintenance was spent in the period, $147.586 million of that sum represented 79 contracts which “were not awarded to the lowest or most competitive bidder.” In response to the observation, the regional accounting officer noted that the reason the lowest bidder was not awarded the contract was “inadvertently not included in the Regional Tender Board Minutes.”
The Regional Tender Board is chaired by the REO. At the time of the award, that officer was Ramayya, who has since resigned, citing “unbearable” circumstances. Ramayya yesterday told Stabroek News that the tender board never saw the documentation relating to each bid and merely followed the recommendations of the evaluators. “We followed the protocol of the National Tender administration. We don’t see the documents. We have evaluators who examine the documents and we award based on the recommendation of the evaluator,” Ramayya said.
