We welcome the assurance by Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for finance, Dr Ashni Singh that an online portal for the publishing of all awards of government contracts is currently being set up by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).
“It is an issue that came to me and I raised this issue as well that we are required to publish the awards as mandated by law,” Dr Singh told Stabroek News, when contacted on the issue.
“For whatever reason they have not been publishing as is required. I raised this with the NPTAB Board and my position is that they must comply. It is to this end that they are currently working on an online portal to have this addressed. They will publish all things required by the Procurement Act,” he added.
It is unsatisfactory that it has taken Dr Singh’s arrival in the portfolio for a six-month-old defect to be remedied. It underlines once more the need for public vigilance in matters where governments are cavalier or not inclined to be transparent in relation to stewardship of public funds. In this milieu large awards can be made to undeserving bidders to the detriment of the public purse and deserving contenders.
PPP/C administrations have had many questions raised in the past about the favouring of certain contractors and the lack of transparency in contract awards. This had been so particularly in the area of drug procurement and the `pre-qualifying’ of bidders which had been seen as attempting to favour one particular bidder. Smaller bidders had also had a difficult time gaining access to contracts.
With the COVID-19 pandemic grafted on to the regular demands of the health sector, transparency is even more pressing. There have been multiple admonitions by international organisations about the danger to public funds from procurement fraud associated with COVID.
A recent probe into public spending on the coronavirus in South Africa found evidence of political pressure, price inflation, and fraud in many of the contracts, fuelled by an “insatiable pursuit of self-enrichment”, according to Reuters.
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) launched the probe in July after a flood of whistleblower submissions alleging irregularities in the procurement of personal protective equipment and hospital supplies like beds and wheel chairs.
Reuters said that the investigation found evidence of tax fraud, the use of shell companies to win multiple contracts, instances of price inflation of up to 500%, and political pressure put on managers to break procurement laws.
The investigation scrutinised more than 13 billion rand (US$870 million) of spending, just a portion of total COVID-19 expenditure of 30.7 billion rand.
The SIU head Andy Mothib state that “It appears that persons in positions of authority in some state institutions believed that the declaration of the state of emergency meant that all procurement is automatically conducted on an emergency basis”.
He added: “The SIU investigations have revealed a flagrant and wanton disregard of the applicable law, policies and procedures. My observation is that the flagrant and wanton disregard is underpinned by insatiable pursuit of self-enrichment.”
Under the former APNU+AFC administration, the winners of contracts had been published and this should have continued seamlessly into this administration. It is unclear why this has not been done. While the portal that Dr Singh referred to is being established, it behoves the NPTAB to release information on all contract awards made over the last six months and to do this expeditiously.
While Stabroek News has had access to the NPTAB’s information on tenders submitted on the large number of bids invited, the names of awardees have been withheld, thereby preventing the closure of the accountability circle.
In yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek a report mainly on drug procurement raised a number of concerns about the manner in which several of these contracts have been awarded. Whistleblowers are not in abundance as bidders are likely worried about being targeted. It is all the more reason why the NPTAB has to be insulated from political direction and interference. Every aspect of its operations must be able to withstand scrutiny: from the receipt of tenders, to the evaluation of the tenders and ultimately the selection of the successful bidder.
The staffing of the NPTAB, in particular, its evaluation committees is of great importance. Those who have been selected for the board of the NPTAB and the evaluators have to be persons knowledgeable in procurement and above reproach.
Even more importantly, recourse by bidders to the Public Procurement Commission is absolutely crucial to ensuring transparency and rectitude in contract awards. It is hoped that the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament can expedite the selection of new members of the Commission so that the complete transparency framework is in place.
