Dear Editor,
The call is overdue: ‘stop playing games.’ It was Opposition MP, Mr. David Patterson, uttering those words to the people at the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) in the Sunday Stabroek of December 3rd. I think he is on to something with that timely reminder to the PPC: Guyanese see what is going on, they know the games being played with their tax dollars at the Tender Board, but it is time for those games to come to a screeching halt. I agree. But, five weeks since this issue became headline news, it has been more of a whimpering state at the PPC on the controversial award of the Tepui contract.
First, the meeting was canceled in one of the early weeks, which could be understandable, as people have busy schedules; just check what had happened with the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. Second, it was that the issue was going to be discussed, but apparently other circumstances intervened, took precedence. Once could be an accident, but twice could be the beginning of a pattern of evasion, which MP Patterson has made known in the firmest terms.
I am still on the fence, and seek to give the Chairwoman of the PPC, Ms. Pauline Chase, as much space as is needed to demystify this Tepui contract puzzle, to untie this Gordian knot. Still, I think that what Ms. Chase is attempting with this Humpy-Dumpty story may have proven insurmountable even for Alexander the Great. Nevertheless, I am on Ms. Chase’s side, and extend my regrets to MP Patterson, while he keeps up the heat on this burning contract issue. I hail his flailing away and doing his best to keep it in front of Guyanese. But then Chairwoman Chase’s last reported utterance on the Tepui contract and why it is still floating around unanswered is what sent me rushing to link arms with Mr. Patterson.
According to SN, Ms. Chase said that efforts are underway to have all five PPC commissioners agree on the course of action to be taken. Though articulated at a diplomatic function, I find that to be a shade on the undiplomatic side. The British must be coughing in their Beefeater Gin. We cannot get two Guyanese to agree on most things that are straight, but there is Ms. Chase grappling inside the PPC stables with the Herculean task of putting forward a clean and full slate of five on something that is as wavy as a tsunami. I am sure that the PPC’s PPP commissioners would have no problem in justifying the Tepui contract award. C’mon, why make a mountain out of molehill since it happens all the time, is now an established part of local contract culture? Give the people at Tepui a break.
Let me guess, the five-week holdup likely lies with those non PPP commissioners, who are having none of their PPC colleagues spurious rationalizations, wheedling overtures, and whatever they do there that passes for independent analysis and decisions. Just make it happen, baby. Like I said, fool me once, and that’s okay; fool the people twice, and that is the people’s business. But anybody who tries that a third time is a dead ringer for a dummy. I am not buying that pig, brother. Something smells in GT. All the commissioners agreeing is tantamount to trying to raise the Titanic. Maybe on other contracts, but I am extremely constrained in seeing how this is possible with the Tepui contract, which had a certain blotched complexion from the hour of its public arrival. Perhaps, it is the Venezuelan in me that comes up with sophisticated lines of thinking like these.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall