It was the lowest bidder in the tendering process who received the contract to build the cricket hostel at LBI even though there were some objections and his price went up significantly thereafter.
Meanwhile, there is no official tendering process at the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB); the board’s administrator is tasked with undertaking selective tendering for projects and services required by the division.
Stabroek News was told that there was public tendering in relation to the LBI hostel put up by the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and a five-man team oversaw it.
The company that was finally chosen had submitted the lowest bid, which was much lower than the engineer’s estimate. It is believed that the contractor, who added another $26 million to the original sum approved by the board, was awarded the contract because a person close to the board has connections to the company. It was the same contractor, according to sources, who did construction work for the person close to the board.
“Two persons on the team objected to the contractor being awarded the contract, but three wanted it and they used their majority to give it to him,” sources told Stabroek News yesterday.
According to sources, there were serious concerns that the contractor would not have been able to build the hostel for the amount of money that was entered in his bid and the fears were confirmed when the contractor added on more money even before he inked the contract.
Sources told Stabroek News that while many believed the sum to build the hostel was more than the contractor placed in the bid, it was never expected that the cost would have been over $60 million.
“And it was the manner in which the additional money was given to the contractor,” a source told this newspaper. “It was never done with the approval of the board and these are the things that Jai spoke out against. He was the one who picked it up in the financial records.”
Pretipaul Jaigobin known as ‘Jai’ was burnt with acid two weeks ago and many believe that it was because of his diligence in board matters and the fact that he was never one to see wrongdoing and remain quiet.
Following serious allegations of financial irregularities the deeply divided executive was summoned to a meeting on Tuesday in the office of Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony at the end of which it was decided that the Office of the Auditor General would audit the finances of the board.
It was also decided that Design and Construction Services will examine both the LBI and Anna Regina hostels to determine whether the GCB got value for its money. There are reports that both hostels were poorly constructed and are already falling apart. This was denied in relation to the LBI facility by the Guyana Cricket Board.
And according to sources no supervisor was appointed to oversee the building of the LBI hostel.
A person close to the board said “he had some friend who was an engineer who promise to look over the building but when you do find out the man is a mechanical engineer and he never one day went to the hostel site,” one source told this newspaper.
The source pointed out that the board should have hired an engineer to provide technical support during the construction period.
“This could have prevented the hostel from being of such poor quality,” the source said.
And that no defect liability clause was in the contract was an issue that Jaigobin raised at many meetings.
“Jai pointed out this issue at meeting after meeting, he never rested with it and now this happened to him,” one source said.
Administrator and treasurer
Meanwhile, this newspaper understands that the administrator of the ECB board, who also holds the position of treasurer, “puts all the arrangements in place,” where tendering for services and projects are concerned. A source in the Region Two cricket division told this newspaper yesterday that transportation, catering and supply of needed services for board events in the division are normally selected by the administrator.
Ideally, it was noted, a budget should be prepared by the ECB, and submitted to the umbrella body in the city. The current procedure came into practice after the last elections at the ECB.
The contractor for the Anna Regina cricket hostel was appointed via selective tendering, where the administrator identified “about four contractors and they were all given documents”. The GCB met and examined the documents and the lowest bid was selected. “Something fishy went on there,“ a source said, since at the last Annual Biennial meeting of the ECB, a board member had said he knew something about the administrator and tendering for the hostel which he “would never disclose, but would keep close” to his heart.
Another practice which has been met with dissatisfaction at the board level in the Cinderella County was the “non-existence” of drawback funds which the board would be afforded via discounts while undertaking events in the division.
A source explained that in the case of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) allocating funds to the GCB for cricket events here , there are instances where the GCB would be afforded discounts, for instance for catering services.
The discounted amount would then be utilized by the GCB for undertaking its own activities. In the case of the ECB and the GCB in a similar scenario, the ECB board members “never saw” where those funds went, and receipts from the companies sourced by the board were usually unavailable.
During a recent event where meals were provided to teams visiting for an inter-county tournament, the administrator “prepared the meals and attached a cost to it” and the matter had engaged the attention and was even discussed at the board level, sources said. A cricket team from Berbice had also complained about the “poor” quality of water which was provided at another tournament undertaken in the county recently. It was later discovered that the water was purchased “at a cheap price,” the sources said.
