At his press conference at Freedom House on Thursday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo spoke about corruption and procurement – an unlikely topic as this government has tried hard to embed the image that corruption is not a problem and that it has taken a hard line on it. He went as far as to say that sting operations will be launched and that those caught in the web would face the consequences.
“I see a lot has been written about corruption and all of that. The government has undertaken a review at every level [of] the procurement system,” Mr Jagdeo said.
“Let me put on notice all of those people who are responsible for procurement in public corporations, statutory bodies, the ministries, regions, central ministries, everywhere, all the way up to the national tender board, that we’re examining the procurement procedures for compliance and also activities for compliance with the laws… and let me make it clear that if we find that those officers are skirting the provisions of the procurement law, then there shall be consequences for them,” he added.
The Vice President also said that he has received a number of complaints with persons going to the party’s headquarters to lament their plight. “Too often we hear, I sit at Freedom House and people come, and I hear people complain that in some parts of this country, remote parts of this country, somebody is doing something [nefarious]. People win a bid and after the bid has been awarded, they try to change specs on the bid,” Mr Jagdeo lamented.
He continued: “Another issue is payment. People who have done their work and submitted the bills, some of the accounting clerks in the ministries, they keep the processing of the payment for days on their desks… people have to run 10 to 15 times to get money [for work] they already did. Sometimes they have bank loans… run there to these little czars. It could be one clerk holding up a payment and then sometimes they want money to expedite a payment. Let me put on notice those people too.”
Mr Jagdeo also spoke about supervisory consultants, a key fixture in the procurement process. “Also, let me say for people who go out on public contracts… and they are paid by the government to supervise the work. They supervise and bring in the bills… if they falsify that then you [government] end up paying for what you have not received. A lot of that has happened,” he said.
If persons caught believe that being aligned to a political party will ensure leniency, Mr Jagdeo said that they have those perceptions wrong.
“So I am forewarning them, I am telling them. If you have been engaged in these practices and you get caught, don’t come and later complain that, oh, you have kids or something or that you belong to a party or a hold a party card or something like that. You get caught, you face the consequences,” he stressed.
There are myriad opportunities in the procurement system for corruption and considering the hundreds of billions of dollars being poured into infrastructure, in particular, the kickbacks and theft could be enormous. Mr Jagdeo would be well aware that the country’s standing as it relates to graft will be under scrutiny as per the international conventions it has subscribed to, in bilateral engagements with Western countries, by multilateral financing institutions and watchdog indices such as Trans-parency International.
Are Mr Jagdeo and the PPP/ C government sincere about intolerance to corruption? Time will tell. He spoke on Thursday about a review at every level of the procurement system. That in itself signals serious concern over the procurement system but Thursday was the first time that the country had heard anything about such a comprehensive review. Who is conducting this review? What does it entail?
As to these complaints to Freedom House, how were they handled? Did any of these lead to the activation of the various grievance mechanisms? Did they result in changes in how government agencies procured goods and services? This government is just three months shy of four years in office. Corrupt behaviour wouldn’t have begun this week or three months ago. It probably would have been there from the very inception but unaddressed or ignored.
Another possible sign of concern about corruption was a recent meeting between the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). How the meeting was initiated is unclear but it resulted in a release from the PPC that said that the IDB pledged its support in guiding the Commission in international best practices in developing Standard Operating Procedures (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. It added that the IDB is also committed to collaborating with the PPC in training evaluators in international best practices for the evaluation process.
The public is very much attuned to the feints that come from the government on matters like corruption. It talks the talk but nothing else follows. This may well be another such occasion. However, the government has arrived at a juncture where it stands exposed over what would have to be considered the corrupt awarding of pump station contracts to unqualified contractors. The qualification threshold for such awards would have been experience in similar construction. It has now been admitted that several awards were handed to persons who did not meet that benchmark. How can that be possible or acceptable when dealing with awards that verge on $1b each? The most notorious of these awards has been to Tepui Inc whose principal has been in close and regular proximity to Mr Jagdeo and who is seen to be a social media agitator working in the interest of the governing PPP/C. The award to Tepui was made by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB). The evaluators who made the recommendation in favour of Tepui Inc, despite all of the shortcomings of its bid, should have been the subject of a criminal investigation. Nothing has happened and the government, which also provided its no-objection at Cabinet level to the award though it would have been aware of the incapacity of Tepui Inc, is hoping that the matter simply fades from public view. It won’t.
President Ali has still not been heard from about the award of the Tepui contract or to other unqualified contractors but given that these were made by the NPTAB appointed by his Ministry of Finance he must be answerable. It is either that the government is serious about ensuring that public monies are protected from corruption or it is prepared to turn a blind eye.
