Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran has written the Chairperson of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) Carol Corbin to challenge the disregarding of his application for the post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the body.
Stabroek News yesterday reported that a Jamaican who acted briefly as Contractor General was the person selected. Stabroek News had erroneously reported the candidate to be Greg Christie when it was actually Craig Beresford, who is currently Head of the Strategic Manage-ment Division of Caricom.
On Sunday, Goolsarran had told Stabroek News that he wasn’t even afforded the courtesy of an acknowledgement of his application for the post, much less an interview. He said he had read in Wednesday’s edition of Stabroek News that Corbin had said that applications had been evaluated and a recommendation made to Parliament as to who should be CEO.
Yesterday, Goolsarran wrote to Corbin stating, “I am obviously disappointed at the Commis-sion’s decision to disregard my application and not to shortlist me for an interview.”
He noted that in Corbin’s response yesterday to his enquiry last week about the fate of his application, she said the assessment of the applications received for the post of CEO “did not result in your selection as one of the candidates whose experience was most closely aligned to the requirements of the post.”
Goolsarran differed with her on his qualifications and experience, while noting his long service as Auditor General, an accounting qualification and broad experience. He attached a comparative analysis of the qualifications in his correspondence to Corbin “in the hope that the Commission, having apparently made an oversight, will be kind enough to revisit the basis of selection of the proposed candidate.”
Goolsarran cited his professional qualifications, which include being a Chartered Certified Accountant with an FCCA from the UK, having an MBA from the University of Strathclyde and Doctor of Business Administration from Robert Kennedy College, as compared with Beresford having an MBA from University of Manchester.
In listing his professional experience, he noted that he served as Finance Manager of the MMA/ADA from 1985 to 1987; then as Deputy Auditor General from 1987 to 1990; as Auditor General from 1990 to 2004; as Chief Internal Auditor of UN Peacekeeping Operations from 2002 to 2004 and Executive Secretary, UN Board of Auditors from 2005 to 2012; as International Audit Advisor and Trainer, National Audit Office of Afghanistan for three months; and as a Public Financial Management (PFM) Consultant from 2015 to date, during which time he has conducted four forensic audits of four state institutions and reviewed the government’s PFM Action Plan and developed a Budget Transparen-cy Action Plan (BTAP) with heavy emphasis on procurement (EU-funded). He has also had a six-month assignment with GuySuCo to review its procurement practices and to develop new rules and a three-month assignment with the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs to develop PFM Handbook, training materials and to deliver training in Amerindian communities.
In comparison, he noted that Beresford has served as Information System Manager of Office of Disaster Preparedness Emergency Response, from 1995 to 2001; Senior Director of Corporate Services of Office of Disaster Preparedness Emer-gency Response, from 2001 to 2005; Senior Director of Office of Contractor-General, from 2006 to 2014; Acting Contractor-General for a period of three months; and as Director of Strategic Management at Caricom from 2014 to present.
