Government on Thursday dismissed criticisms by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on the recent award of contracts, saying they were long in the making and aboveboard.
Asked about the recent criticisms levelled by Jagdeo, Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency Joseph Harmon told reporters that the monies that will be used to execute the contracts were included in the 2019 budget.
He emphasised that the process of awarding a contract starts months before it actually reaches the point of signing. Several processes have to be completed before the contract goes for signing by the permanent secretary, he said. “There is a process which would have started, in many cases, six months, three months before and so Mr Jagdeo is fully aware of that, having been a Minister of Finance himself and therefore I think what he is trying to do is to create a situation which is seeking to say we are acting illegal,” Harmon said on the sidelines of the Guyana Defence Force’s Annual Officers’ Conference.He stressed that the funds for the contracts were allocated in the 2019 budget and as such, it is not new monies that the government is accessing. He also highlighted that the contracts were not hidden but were publicly tendered
Two weeks ago, Jagdeo accused the APNU+AFC government of using recently approved contracts as a means to “siphon money” from the public treasury.
He identified the contract signed by the Ministry of Education for the construction of the Yarrowkabra Secondary School on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway for a sum of $826.7 million.
At the time, Jagdeo said that when he sees a contract for nearly a billion dollars for a school and sees who the central players are, “I can put my head on a block” that there is something wrong.
“This is downright illegal. They are signing some of these contracts in the New Year… A lot of this is intended to bypass provisions so they can continue to disburse money [and] go all for broke in these last two months,” he claimed.
At his weekly press conference two Thursday ago, Jagdeo shared two memorandums sent from Cabinet Secretary Edward Persico in December last year to the Chairman of the National Tender and Procurement Administration Board in which Persico reported that the Cabinet Sub-Committee has “considered and noted” the award of a total of 54 contracts for various projects across ministries and agencies.
These contracts were not disclosed by the government before they were raised by Jagdeo.
