-in bid to strengthen processes
Amid searing criticism of its conduct, the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) met on Wednesday with representatives from the Inter-American Deve-lopment Bank (IDB) on strengthening procurement processes in Guyana, a release from the PPC stated.
At the meeting which was held at the Commission’s Queens-town, Georgetown offices, the PPC was represented by its Chairman, Pauline Chase; Deputy Chairman, Berkley Wickham; and Commissioners Dianna Rajcumar, Joel Bhag-wandin, and Rajnarine Singh, along with its Chief Executive Officer, Michael Singh. Repre-sentatives from the IDB included IDB Representative in Guyana, Lorena Solórzano Salazar; Chief of Operations, Iván-Alonzo Gaviria; and Procurement Spe-cialist, Patricia Yamilee Payen.
The release said that under the constitution, the PPC is vested with oversight of the public procurement system. Further, as enabled by Section 17(2) of the Procurement Act, Cap. 73:05, it is inter alia responsible for organising training seminars on procurement and making recommendations to the subject Minister for amendment(s) to the legislation to enhance the efficiency of the procurement process.
During the meeting, several key matters were addressed, including a) assistance from the IDB – the IDB pledged its support in guiding the PPC in international best practices in developing Standard Operating Proce-dures (SOPs) for monitoring the procurement process, execution of contracts oversight, and standard bidding documents. This includes international best practices in the evaluation process, evaluation guide and standard evaluation report format.
b) Collaboration for Evaluator Training – the IDB committed to collaborating with the PPC in training evaluators in international best practices for the evaluation process. This builds on previous training exercises of the PPC supported by the IDB.
The evaluators in the procurement system come under the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) of the Ministry of Finance. They have been criticized for making awards that do not comport with the guidelines accompany tenders.
According to the release, the meeting follows prior engagements between the PPC and the IDB particularly in the area of legislative reform aimed at improving Guyana’s public procurement framework emanating from the 2018 Report, “Streng-thening of the Public Procure-ment Framework in Guyana,” prepared by IDB consultant, attorney-at-law, and procurement specialist, Sabine Engelhardt.
It noted that in the past, the Bank has engaged with the Public Procurement Commission on various initiatives, and other areas of support, including training for contractors and suppliers in IDB-funded projects.
The PPC has been flayed over its failure to recommend the termination of a huge pump station contract to the unqualified company, Tepui Inc. The evaluators of the NPTAB recommended the award of the contract even though Tepui failed to meet several key requirements.
The IDB is financing projects here that must go through the procurement system.
