While signalling the start of an audit investigation into the printing of Ministry of Education text books, Auditor General Deodat Sharma said yesterday that he finds it “strange” that the Guyana National Printers Limited (GNPL) was able to determine that local printers did not have the capacity to do the printing.
He made reference to a letter carried in yesterday’s edition of Stabroek News in which General Manager of GNPL, Trevor Bassoo defended the use of a Trinidad-based company to print the books.
“The GNPL in today’s [newspaper] said that they did sub contract it because the local people did not have capacity. That’s strange for them to determine that,” he told Stabroek News. He said that an audit has been launched into the procurement of the text books.
Bassoo in his letter which was in response to a series of articles carried by the Kaieteur News, said in 2017, the company received a loan from the Government to purchase and enhance its capacity to provide a reliable and efficient service to its customers, including its biggest one – the Ministry of Education.
Highlighting that the use of a Trinidad company to print the majority of the ministry’s text books because of the lack of capacity locally is no secret, he said that with the receipt of the loan came “great excitement and expectations” to have that back in Guyana since GNPL was on the verge of having its press up and running.
“Unfortunately, we encountered some early electrical issues and were faced with the challenge of meeting our deadline for the Ministry of Education. In our efforts to avoid any disruptions of the delivery of the books, GNPL contacted the local
companies we felt had the capacity to print the books including Kaieteur Books Inc. (a sister company of the Kaieteur News)”
According to him many of the large local printers did not have the capacity. “Those that did express interest to print were unable to commit to competitive prices and suggested that we were underpricing the Ministry of Education. Therefore, in order to meet the 2018 deadline as requested by the Ministry of Education, and since we could not print locally, GNPL reverted to the Trinidad Company for the printing of the text books. We at GNPL were saddened in having to make this decision. But as a business, and in order to maintain our responsibility to the Ministry of Education and by extension the school children around the country, we were forced to go that route,” he explained.
Since these developments, GNPL he said has continued to produce and satisfy the orders for exercise books for the Ministry of Education and all of its customers. The company, he said is also putting systems in place to correct the challenges previously experienced and assured that it is ready to print the orders for books for the upcoming academic year.
He also informed that GNPL continues to share the printing of the checkered line books with Kaieteur Books Inc. He further informed that Kaieteur Books Inc. are unable to provide a complete product (inclusive of Quality Control and Packaging) to hand over to the Ministry of Education. “GNPL has to complete the job before delivery to the Ministry of Education. There is no doubt therefore, that the Kaieteur Books Inc. is a sub-contractor for GNPL,” he said.
