The main opposition PNCR is insisting that donor agencies exercise greater determination to ensure that there is transparency, equity, fairness and accountability in the public procurement process.
The party in a press release on Saturday said it “believes that the World Bank, the IDB and other donor agencies, including the bi-laterals, must exercise greater vigour and determination to ensure that there is transparency, equity, fairness and accountability in the public procurement process.”
The PNCR further contended that “this is what the Constitution reform process intended by the provisions for the establishment of a credible, constitutionally autonomous, Public Procurement Commission.”
The Public Procurement Commission, the PNCR said, was one of the decisions coming out of the Constitutional Reform process and it is to be made up of five members, who must have “expertise and experience” in procurement, legal, financial and administrative matters.
But according to the party, the Jagdeo administration has undermined the appointment of the Commission and delayed its establishment by passing the Procurement Act of 2003, which created the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), over which the Minister of Finance exercises control.
And the consequence, in the party’s view, is that “the procurement process is riddled with corruption, as in the case of the procurement of drugs for the Ministry of Health.”
Moreover, the PNCR noted, the embarrassment of this situation and allegations that the administration is illegally controlling the procurement process has awakened a new interest in the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission by the government.
The release stated that President Bharrat Jagdeo, in his recent press conference, implied that the delay in the establishment of the Procurement Commission was as a result of the objection of the opposition to the nominees submitted by the PPP.
“What he did not say was that it was the PPP that voluntarily withdrew these candidates, since, even they recognised that their nominees could not meet the criteria set by the Constitution,” the release pointed out.
CLICO and Globe Trust
Meanwhile, the PNCR maintained that it has no problem with a joint investigation into CLICO (Guyana) and Globe Trust and Investment Company Ltd (GTICL), and observed that at Jagdeo’s recent press conference he again stated that he had no problem with such a joint probe.
Moreover, the PNCR asserted that none of its executive members were involved in the management of the affairs of the privately-owned and managed Globe Trust Company.
“The Party never intervened to obstruct or prevent the investigations and other efforts which were spearheaded under the supervision of the regulatory agency, the Bank of Guyana, save and except to assist and protect the small investor and depositor,” the party stated.
Indeed, the PNCR added, it took measures to provide legal assistance for them.
According to the PNCR, for the President to claim now that ‘some of the current PNCR members of Parliament were part of an arrangement to deprive over 3,000 poor people of their small savings in the entity (Globe Trust)’ “is nothing short of malicious and slanderous propaganda.”
The PNCR further stated that it wished “to make it unambiguous that it has no difficulty with an investigation of Globe Trust.”
But it expressed amazement that the President “seems to be questioning the integrity of the investigations previously undertaken under the aegis of the Bank of Guyana, at the time of the Globe Trust collapse.”
The party concluded that it wants Jagdeo to undertake the investigation “with all good speed so that there would be no impediment to his honouring his commitments to the depositors and others injured by the collapse of both institutions.”
