Dear Editor,
Acting on behalf of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), I requested that the Audit Office of Guyana do a special Audit of the following projects: The East Bank Berbice road; Works on the Mabaruma road; and the Port Kaituma road works. I note, not with surprise, that the Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, has welcomed the call for an audit to be done.
Editor, I say not with surprise, given that the Minister’s has peddled a similar line before, in what clearly appears to be his attempt to show ‘clean hands’ – when the reality of the state of affairs at his Ministry has been exposed time and time again, most recently in the Auditor General’s 2017 report. The PPP/C will not allow the attempted deflection by the Minister. The issue here is about accountability and transparency.
It was the same Minister who welcomed the investigation of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) into the award of a contract for the feasibility study into a new bridge across the Demerara River. What that report found was that the Minister breached multiple financial laws and that the Cabinet acted illegally in approving the contract. The Minister was not welcoming of these findings.
It was also the same Minister Patterson who welcomed the investigation into the D’Urban Park project. No receipts for the $500M given to HDI or documents relating to the project were found by the Auditor General’s office. The Minister was not welcoming of these findings, which were included in the 2017 Auditor General’s report.
How much of what we saw in these two incidents alone has been replicated in the three road projects?
Editor, Minister Patterson has provided some details on the Mabaruma and Port Kaituma road works, but he has failed to say a few things. Were these projects given to the lowest responsive bidders? What was the procurement process used to engage the contractors? The Minister should make public the contract documents. Once this is done, I am sure that the pattern of a lack of transparency, abuse of taxpayers’ monies and improper procurement processes will be exposed.
Minister Patterson contends that Guyanese are benefiting from the construction and rehabilitation of roadways nationwide. Any one resident could be loud in praise of a project, until they have the details of said project and I refer specifically to the East Bank Berbice road, which is being undertaken via use of the Force Account. Why is the Minister not giving figures of what has been spent and the quantities spent on this project, as he did with the other two?
In case the Minister missed it, the question here is about value for money and compliance with Guyana’s financial rules. The Minister should not use the plight of residents as an excuse to violate financial laws and procurement processes.
Minister Patterson has given his word on multiple occasions, offering assurances in the face of expressed concerns. As such, an official report must be completed into these matters. We are sure that once that official report is completed and it details adverse findings, Minister Patterson would return to adopting his unwelcoming posture.
Finally, Editor, what is instructive in Minister Patterson’s ramblings about welcoming an audit into the three road projects is the indirect and simultaneous, albeit somewhat contradictory, indication that there is no need for an audit.
Yours faithfully,
Bishop Juan Edghill,
PPP/C MP
