The Region Nine council is continuing to award contracts to a blacklisted contractor.
This is one of the findings of the Auditor General’s report on the public accounts for 2022.
Tabled in the National Assembly on Monday, the report said that two contracts totaling $20.35m were awarded last year to a contractor who is currently blacklisted by the Public Procurement Commission (PPC).
Similarly, in 2021, the report said that eight contracts totalling $106.8m had been awarded by the regional administration to the same blacklisted contractor.
“The awarding of contracts by the region to the blacklisted contractor is in breach of regulation 5 of the Procurement (Suspension and Debarment) Regulations 2019 made under the Procurement Act (Cap 73:05) and gazetted on June 21 2019”, the report said.
One of the contracts was for repairs to the Kwatamang Road in Kwatamang Village, North Rupununi to the tune of $13.9m. No details were seen on the tendering and award process, the report said.
The other contract was for the purchase of a 4 x 4 vehicle worth $6.4m. Again no details were seen of the tendering and award process.
When the region was asked for an explanation, it simply said that the repairs to the Kwatamang road were completed.
The audit office recommended that the head of the budget agency investigate the matter and desist from awarding contracts to blacklisted contractors.
