The Public Procurement Commission (PPC) has responded to an article in the December 4 issue of the Kaieteur News under the caption “Employment costs for Public Procurement Commission up by $115M – 2023 Annual Report,” which the Commission states was grossly misrepresented and deserved to be corrected.
Making it clear that it had no issue with media scrutiny, the PPC lamented the fact that the reporter/journalist failed to acquire any explanation or clarification resulting in a report that was fundamentally inaccurate, hence, it wished to provide the missing context and explanation for the reported large variance of $115 million obtained in 2023 relative to the previous year, 2022.
The release pointed out that a simple examination of the PPC’s 2023 Annual Report that was previously laid over to the National Assembly in December, 2023, in tandem with the Audited Financial Statements, would have showed the reasons for the variance reported.
“It would appear that the 2023 Annual Report was never perused by that particular media house although it is a publicly available document. It would also appear that the (July 8, 2022-July 8, 2023) Annual Report (laid over in December 2023) as distinct from Audited Financial Statements for 2022 and 2023 (laid over in November 2024) have been fundamentally confused and conflated by the publication.”
The release also noted that the said Annual Report, covering the first year of operation of the presently constituted commission, is the first to be ever laid over in discharge of its constitutional duty to so do; the prior constituted commission having not done so for any period of their operation. Similarly, the aforementioned recently laid over Audited Financial Statements discharges the commission’s statutory responsibility to so do, up to date.
Giving some background on the issue, the release explained that the PPC was first constituted by former President David Granger on October 28, 2016, for a period of three years, pursuant to Article 212Y of the constitution. The tenures of the then Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson were extended by President David Granger (as he then was) for a period of one year with effect from October 25, 2019. No other commissioners were appointed leaving the commission not fully constituted and or quorate. The commission was next fully constituted, as is presently constituted, by President Irfaan Ali, for a period of three years, with effect from July 8, 2022.
Further, the three-year contractual period for the staff of the PPC, had expired for most of the employees by the time the next Commission was constituted in July, 2022. As a result, the Commission had to set about on a recruitment drive in 2022, to re-staff its constitutionally mandated Secretariat.
“With this in mind, it would be improper to compare the employment costs of 2023 with previous year 2022, when the commission was in effect unstaffed. Further to note, the current PPC used the opportunity to review the organisational structure of the PPC as reported in the aforementioned Annual Report; removing padded administrative positions and replacing them with technical staff,” the Commission observed
The release also informed that under the previously constituted PPC, the final year they operated with a fully staffed Secretariat before employees’ contracts expired, was the year 2019. Therefore, it suggested, it would be more prudent to properly compare the employment cost of the PPC in 2023, with the year 2019.
According to the PPC’s figures, in 2019, the total employment cost of the PPC was $163.2 million, which increased by $27.7 million or 20% over the previous year in 2018. In 2023, the employment cost of $175.8 million represents an increase of $12.5 million or 7% to the last duly constituted PPC’s employment cost in 2019. Therefore, the real increase in employment cost of the current PPC for the year ended 2023, when compared to the previously constituted PPC in 2019, was $12.5 million or only 7%. December 4, 2024.
