The majority of government’s billboard business, worth tens of millions of dollars, has been channelled over the last 21 months to one company – Impressions Inc – to the detriment of other companies capable of the same work.
Sources say that the directing of the work to Impressions has escaped scrutiny as individual government ministries have not had to tender the works as the value of many of the contracts may fall under the limit required for tendering.
Impressions has had a longstanding close relationship with key PPP/C leaders and had been a major beneficiary of its advertising under earlier governments. It is unclear whether there has been a directive to the ministries to utilise Impressions but none of the other companies are benefiting from contracts.
When asked for a comment, owner of Impressions, Patrick ‘Neal’ Sukhlal told Stabroek News that he earns his money through hard work and aggressive marketing and not by favours from the PPP/C government.
Stabroek News has received complaints from a number of companies with comparable facilities that government ministries and agencies’ contracts, for especially digital and regular billboards, are handed to Impressions because of the closeness of the company’s owner to the administration.
Owners of the companies requested anonymity for fear of victimisation in an area of work where they say they are already marginalised.
“Most contracts for billboards come directly from whichever ministry and there is rarely a
tender process for it because it is kept below the amount that requires going through the tender board [National Procurement and Tender Administration Board]. So there is no way to really track how much work but it is in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” one business owner told this newspaper.
“It is known `Neal’ controls that area. If you look at any of the events hosted by ministries, you would see who does their work. Building Expo is coming up and you can be the judge…,” another added.
“A 12 by 24 [ft] billboard, on average, would be about $1.2M to $1.5M the most, banners are way cheaper. Ministries don’t need to put that out for tender for those because the threshold for spending without tendering is about $10M. So you can see what happens there? Ya’ll should check how much Impressions charges for one”, a visibly upset business owner argued.
In 2019, the APNU+AFC government had increased the spending threshold for restricted tendering in the case of contracts for goods and services from $3 million to $10 million, and the threshold for contracts for construction from $10 million to $20 million.
The threshold for the request for quotation method had also been doubled from $1.5 million to $3 million.
Market trends
However, Sukhlal, when contacted, said that his firm hardly does billboard advertising works and not much profit is made from the digital boards. He reasoned that anyone can claim that they are facing hardships in a business but it a competitive market and he keeps abreast of market trends and changes strategies and services accordingly.
“I hardly do billboard work now. The last government took down most of my billboards…the digital billboards that are there, the bulk of the money from that goes to GPL and for maintenance,” he said.
“All of us are facing hardships because of changing advertising trends; having to compete with Facebook and other social media and internet platforms. It is not exactly easy for me too. But what I can tell you is that I don’t get favours from this government…,” he added.
Sukhlal says that a part of his marketing strategy is to also “do free stuff” for agencies or ministries so that his work is recognized and reaches persons from various places.
The company’s profile states that it specializes in embroidery, screen printing, signs and banners, expo booth facilities, promotional novelties, branding and digital advertising.
Sunday Stabroek reached out to Minister with responsibility for Communications, Kwame McCoy for a response on claims of Impressions receiving the majority of the government’s business. The Minister emphasized that government has “no policy” that mandates ministries and agencies to use Impressions for their work.
McCoy, who was out of the country on work duty, said that he would check with various ministries to ascertain which agencies they use for billboard and events organizing and advertising works.
Up to press time that information was not received.
Sukhlal also said that his company’s focus now is not on billboards as changing advertising trends leads to the use of the internet and other mediums.
“I hardly do billboards. But if persons want to, who am I to stop them? That is not my interest really. I cannot imagine people would say I getting preferential treatment and it is because I know this or that person. That is not true…” he contended.
And while he would not name the company, he said that while criticism rains on him, there is a digital billboard being erected in an area that can prove to be a hazard.
He said that when he does do billboards, he ensures that they would not be a distraction and hazard to drivers or an obstacle to road users.
Back in 2015, after the APNU+AFC had won government, the Guyana Water Inc and Sukhlal were at loggerheads after the utility company claimed he had allegedly modified billboards for campaigning in favour of the PPP/C
Sukhlal had denied that he did this, saying that it had to have been altered by campaigners as he made them to the specifications of GWI.
In 2016, the company and the businessman settled the issue.
