President David Granger is confident that the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) will be established this month and in a bid to ensure high-quality work his government will for the first time be looking at the previous performance of contractors.
According to a Ministry of the Presidency statement on Saturday, Granger said that his administration is committed to ensuring greater scrutiny of infrastructural projects and awarding of contracts to remove opportunities for corruption and cronyism at all levels.
The statement said that Granger during an interview at State House on Saturday posited that the PPC will create a more transparent process for the award of contracts. The statement did not say with whom the interview was done.
“(The PPC) will remove from Cabinet the obligation of sorting out contracts, so it will be a transparent process. We haven’t been able to swear in (the) Commission as yet for administrative reasons but I am confident this will be done during (the) month of October. When the Coalition parties (APNU+AFC) were in opposition it was something we fought for and now we have it,” he said.
The statement also reported Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson as saying “We have come a long way… we have reviewed the process from top to bottom. We have prequalified a lot of new contractors. We advertise publicly and for the first time we are looking at the previous performance of contractors. So contractors who were delinquent prior will have to pay penalties. Contractors who were good will be encouraged to continue bidding”.
Patterson added that other measures to be taken include holding both consultants and contractors responsible for errors. He pointed to the establishment of a Bid Protest Committee and stated that it also has the power of debarment, which allows delinquent contractors to be barred from accessing contracts if deemed necessary.
For a number of years, questions have been raised about why contractors with poor performance records have been allowed to bid for or sometimes win new contracts. It has also been pointed out that consultants have been delinquent in not noticing shortcomings during projects and highlighting them. Designers of projects have also sometimes been faulted for the problems that have arisen. The President had recently said that contracting firm, Kares Inc would be debarred from future government projects because of the quality of its work on the Kato Secondary School.
Patterson also adverted to changes that have occurred in the regions.
“We have also placed an engineer in every Region. We use to be primarily located in Georgetown, but now we are in every region to ensure contractors do what they are supposed to do,“ he said. Patterson contended that the process has thus far been fully transparent and that no contractor is favoured but is instead judged solely on ability. He said that the government understands that small and medium scale contractors should also be supported. He said that this has resulted in the restriction of large contractors from bidding on small and medium projects. Patterson also assured that the smaller contractors will get a chance to receive contracts for the last lap jobs that will be conducted by year end.
The President reiterated that when it comes to the sourcing and management of Government rentals, his administration has taken note of the possible problems of having this done by individual Ministries. “We are aware that there have been complaints of the way in which contracts have been awarded for the rental of buildings. Cabinet has decided that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure will be the authority. So if a Ministry needs a building …it is Public Infrastructure, which will inspect the building and make recommendations on the rent that has to be paid. It wouldn’t be, any longer, the responsibility of the ministry to deal with contractors or landlords,” the President said.
Granger added “In every area we have had problems of infrastructure; how contracts were awarded, how work was supervised. They have been subject to audits. People have criticised us for audits but they have helped us to understand how the errors were made and it is our job to use the findings of those audits to correct those errors and to make sure there is no reoccurrence”.
The President emphasised that infrastructural improvement around the country is a priority for this administration. Patterson pointed out that there are currently 70 major projects on-going around the country aimed at improving the overall road and bridge network, the sea and river defence, as well as drainage infrastructure in several parts of the country.
The Minister, the statement said, added that there are also other community based projects being conducted in various parts of the country, which all contribute to about 34 ‘last lap’ projects which are to be completed by year end.
