Whenever the 2020 term of the PPP/C Government is assessed in terms of procurement corruption, the award of the $865m Belle Vue pump station to Tepui Inc will stand out as one of the sternest indictments.
It epitomizes all that has been wrong in procurement matters under PPP/C governments: the award of large contracts to friends and family of PPP/C bigwigs, the assigning of important projects to the desperately unqualified with the attendant likelihood of failed works and additional costs; the compromising of evaluation committees so they could make improper awards; the blindness of Cabinet in demonstrating even the barest of interest in perverse awards even though a number of its members would have been aware of the incapacity of Tepui Inc; the absence of rigid oversight of works and the application of penalties.
Though it took six months to complete its investigation of the contract award to Tepui Inc and then claimed that it could do nothing about it because of privity of contract considerations, the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) did admonish the authorities to follow the project closely and terminate for cause if necessary.
In one of the recommendations in its summary of findings of April 16, 2024, the PPC stated: “VII. The contract for the subject tender having been entered into, it is recommended that the procuring entity strictly monitor the performance of the contract and if the awarded bidder (Tepui) is found in breach, that the necessary steps, including termination if considered to be prudent, be taken to ensure that value for money is achieved. In light of NPTAB’s disclosure as to the other three (3) pump stations, to wit, ‘Jimbo, Meten Meer Zorg and (Pouderoyen)’ which were advertised and evaluated at the same time as the subject tender herein, Belle Vue, also `lacked prior experience specifically in pump station construction” but were deemed to have “had completed a project of a similar nature” and therefore the “same leniency was applied’, the recommendation herein also applies to those pump stations. The commission pursuant to its constitutional mandate, functions and powers shall exercise oversight in this regard”.
The PPC made clear that in consonance with its constitutional mandate it intended to exercise oversight of the matter. So, what has happened? Answering questions from Stabroek News on another project, the PPC disclosed that three months later it is yet to receive any updates on the Belle Vue project from the procuring agency in question, the all-important National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA). As a consequence of this delinquency, the PPC said it has now sought to engage the subject Minister, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha.
This is the height of gross disrespect by the NDIA to the constitutionally accoutred PPC. If President Ali is serious about procurement rectitude and read the news item in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek one would hope that he immediately summoned the NDIA Head, its Chairman and Minister Mustapha to account.
However, it has been clear from several reports produced by the PPC that gross disrespect of its important duties is par for the course and nothing has changed. It has not received information in a timely manner or at all from a number of the agencies it has addressed including the national tender board, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the NDIA, the Guyana Defence Force, the Hinterland Electrification Company Inc and others. Lip service is obviously being paid to the requirement of probity in the procurement sector.
All of the sanctimonious prating by the government about its adherence to procurement standards and incorruptibility is just chaff in the wind. It must bring to heel all of the errant procuring agencies and ensure that they comply with requests for action and information from the PPC.
In its annual report for July 2022 to July 2023 recently submitted to Parliament, the PPC highlighted the poor response from some procuring entities and board.
It cited among its challenges: “failure of procuring entities and boards to submit information in a timely manner and or at all in compliance with the constitution for monitoring and investigations and the need for structured procurement systems in the submission of information to the PPC”.
Daily, there is evidence of poor procurement practices in the termination of projects and retendering, the Tepui Inc scandal is the clearest manifestation of the problem. The government must ensure that the constitutionally-inscribed oversight systems work and that the various procuring agencies and tender boards co-operate fully with the PPC.