Dear Editor,
Mr. Charles Sohan (SN, May 1, 2024) disagreed with the writer (SN April 23, 2024) that an umbrella programme management unit (UPMU) is urgently needed to oversee the various infrastructure projects in Guyana to deter corruption and to enable timely and quality infrastructure works. The crux of his contention is “The NPTAB has been functioning with a lot of criticism for its lack of transparency, allegations of discrimination and corruption in the award of contracts and purchase of equipment. Therefore, a review and upgrade of its mandate is urgently needed not as suggested – an Umbrella Programme Management Unit. For example, with respect to contract awards, the successful bidder should be selected as the lowest evaluated bidder and not as the lowest cost one. Bidders should be selected not only because of their low bid but because their selection takes into consideration their integrity, experience, financial capability, personnel, equipment, etc. Most of NPTAB awards have been to bidders who were the lowest ones without taking into consideration those other factors. Because of this discrepancy many of them have suffered from time, costs overruns and other factors and were unable to complete their contracts which the Government has had to take over and complete eventually.”
Mr. Charles Sohan, a prominent Civil Engineer, knows fully well that contract procurement is different from project management. In Guyana, the latter is called Supervisory Services. The major projects (e.g., the New Demerara River Bridge) do have reputable firms performing Supervisory Services. It is the relatively smaller infrastructure projects that project management is absent, inadequate, or poorly executed. The purpose of public procurement is to enable fair and transparent competition according to established rules and procedures. NPTAB’s mission (https://www.npta.gov.gy/about-us/the-npta/) is consistent with this purpose. Further, Mr. Sohan is aware that in the procurement of civil works, there are general standards and special standards for contractors. General standards, couched in legal language, refer to conventional requirements such as satisfactory financial resources, the necessary construction equipment, or the ability to obtain them, and so on. The special standards are those qualifications and experiences, and financial bonds required for works such as pump stations, road construction, bridges, and so on. These are generally prepared by the engineer in responsible charge or substitutes with the relevant experience.
The writer’s article (SN April 23, 2024) refers to problems in the selection of a contractor and possible corruption “If the engineer is inexperienced and is also compromised, then the contractor’s experience and qualifications and/or financial bonds can be lowered or tailored for a specific contractor”. It is these special standards that the UPMU can peer review to ensure compliance with the design requirements of the proposed project. The “lack of transparency, allegations of discrimination and corruption in the award of contracts and purchase of equipment” in public procurement is not unique to Guyana or the PPP/C government. It is a universal problem (alleged or real) in public procurement and contracting. No country exists on this planet that cannot be labeled as corrupt. Denmark is the least corrupt country according to Transparency International (2023 Corruption Perceptions Index: Explore the… – Transparency.org) with an index of 90, not 100. Even Transparency International has been accused of corruption (Silencing a Whistleblower, A Story of Hypocrisy, Cobus de Swardt, 2021).
At stake is not corruption but the degree of corruption. Mr. Sohan has experience in Guyana of blatant disregard for public procurement norms and corruption (e.g., his article in SN April 21, 2024) during the Burnham’s regime. He wrote (SN, May 1, 2024), “a review and upgrade of its (NPTAB) mandate is urgently needed not as suggested – an Umbrella Programme Management Unit.” The mandate of Guyana’s NPTAB is “to facilitate the establishment and implementation of a regulatory environment conducive to transparency, economy, efficiency, openness, fairness and accountability in public sector procurement.” (https://www.npta.gov.gy/about-us/the-npta/). This is consistent with international norms. Mandates are often not the problems in government or private bodies. It is the application of rules and procedures within the mandates by personnel, whether influenced by outsiders or not, that is the problem.
In Guyana, the Audit Office is tasked with scrutinizing “the expenditure of public funds on behalf of Parliament” (https://www.audit.org.gy/about.html). I urge Mr. Sohan to read, if he has not done so, the reports of the Auditor General to see the flaunting of the rules and procedures and transgressions in public civil works during this and previous Government regimes (see for example the writer’s article SN January 29, 2023). The issue is one of accountability and actionable corrections, and this requires public outcry. Mr. Sohan questioned the selection of a contractor based on the “lowest evaluated bidder and not as the lowest cost one.” I refer Mr. Sohan to my article on the topic (SN January 29, 2023) of contract procurement types, their advantages, and disadvantages. The writer is sure that Mr. Sohan is familiar with this topic. In that article, the writer wrote “From the reported transgressions, there are two areas – contracting and project management – that are obviously dysfunctional.”
The writer’s suggested umbrella programme management unit is intended as an integrated project management and planning service to assist the government in developing concepts, scopes of works, procurement of technical services (e.g., special standards), quality control, and monitoring across all its infrastructural works. The primary benefits are value engineering, consistency, quality, minimization of construction variant costs, timeliness, and building public confidence. This Government has infrastructure construction works both in scope and scale never undertaken in the history of Guyana. While it is easy to find areas to criticize, and constructive criticisms must be encouraged, it behooves us to offer solutions to assist the Government in raising the standards of living for all Guyanese. It is the prerogative of the Government to accept or reject these solutions. An effective solution requires the correct identification of the root cause or causes of a problem and the context. Unlike Mr. Sohan, the writer does not identify the NPTAB’s mandate as a problem. Rather, the problem lies in its applications.
Perhaps, a review is needed to evaluate the application of the extant rules and procedures, identification of rules and procedures that require strengthening, evaluation process, contract types desired for certain classes of projects, and penalties. If Guyana has a bevy of qualified, experienced, and resource-rich contractors, then the NPTAB’s rules and procedures for open-source procurement, rigorously followed, will not garner the many, recent public accusations. Of course, the drumbeat of alleged corruption will still flourish. Over several decades, Guyanese have suffered from corruption in Government services and projects. Corruption has become, justifiably, a Guyanese state of mind. Some may witness a 4-lane highway under construction and the first thought is not of a progressing Guyana and the potential benefits but of lots of corruption. Successfully transforming Guyana also requires transcending the society.
The root cause of the reported problems with infrastructural works is the shortage of the required skill sets (contractors, engineers, technicians, program managers, etc.). In the short term, the UPMU will, at least, alleviate the problems of contractors’ defaults, poor workmanship, and other engineering project management issues. The UPMC is not the solution for building technical capacity. By extending its services to advising and providing on-the-job training, it will facilitate the successful completion of projects. Regardless of what remedial action the Government takes, the deluge of allegations of corruption, most without evidence, will persist as the label “Government corruption” has become fashionable. It is imperative that the government assiduously work to stamp out corruption from top to bottom, actively responds to allegations of corruption with counter-indicative evidence (data), acquires updated data, and makes them publicly accessible.
Sincerely,
Dr. Muniram Budhu
Professor Emeritus
