Days after he was named as a nominee of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), financial analyst Joel Bhagwandin was appointed as the Managing Director of an oil and gas shore base company, TriStar Inc.
The appointment will raise various questions as PPC members are meant to be full-time employees even though some of the previous members were allowed to undertake other jobs.
Further, with the rapid expansion of state contracts in the oil and gas sector, observers say it is possible that a conflict of interest could arise where Bhagwandin might have to adjudicate in cases that might come to the PPC connected to shore bases.
Contacted by Stabroek News on Friday about his appointment to the West Demerara-based company, Bhagwandin said that there will be no conflict in his two roles as TriStar has no plans to bid for government contracts.
“It is two completely different areas and there is no conflict. We [TriStar] won’t be competing for any government contracts… If TriStar was in the business of competing for government contracts it would have been a conflict and I would not have accepted the [PPC] position,” he told Stabroek News.
Bhagwandin also pointed out that as a commissioner, the post of PPC Commissioner was not a full-time one, as he pointed to previous commissioners who had other jobs.
In October 2016, and more than 13 years after Guyana’s Constitution was amended to provide for the PPC, the procurement oversight body was established. Carol Corbin, Sukrishnalall Pasha who was a lecturer at the University of Guyana and is now this country’s Finance Secretary, Attorney Emily Dodson, teacher Ivor English and former Minister of Labour, Nanda Kishore Gopaul, were the first commissioners.
“Joel is a well-known financial analyst with over fourteen years’ experience in commercial banking, the financial sector and private sector development combined. During this time, he has accumulated experience in providing financial and business advice to both large corporations and SMEs in addition to his managerial experience. Additionally, he has been actively engaged in providing the Guyanese public with insights and analyses on economic and financial issues,” TriStar said of Bhagwandin in a statement.
Rules and codes for Commissioners of the PPC had been drafted by the previous PPC and given to the then Attorney General’s Chambers for approval but that document was not returned, this newspaper understands.
For more than one year this country has been without a procurement oversight body but that hasn’t stopped the handing out of billions of dollars in contracts.
Last week, after an initial agreement at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on the names, the APNU+AFC changed one of its nominees in economist Rawle Lucas and replaced him with Diana Rajcumar.
A motion is to be moved at the next PAC meeting for the names to be accepted and to be forwarded to the National Assembly. The five persons will require two-thirds support in the National Assembly.
The other nominees of the PAC to the PPC are attorney Pauline Chase, Rajnarine Singh and Berkley Wickham.
Among the commission’s primary functions are monitoring the performance of procurement bodies for adherence to regulations and efficiency in procuring goods and services and the execution of works. It specifically has oversight over the procedures of ministerial, regional and national procurement entities as well as those of project execution units.
Further, the commission is empowered to investigate complaints from suppliers, contractors and public entities and cases of irregularities and mismanagement, with the power to propose remedial action in all instances.
