Analyst says Govt showing disregard for Guyana’s procurement laws

New Demerara River crossing

A former member of the Alliance For Change (AFC) has accused Government of showing disregard for the laws of Guyana, specifically as it relates to the established procurement process.

In referring to the new Demerara River bridge project debacle, Sasenarine Singh, said this is providing a nightmare of those tasked with the oversight functions of the public Treasury.
Singh told Guyana Times International on Wednesday that direct contracting of Government’s business to one’s business acquaintance, friends, and family in non-competitive deals behind closed doors in dark rooms seems to be the new fashion statement from the Government.
He contends that the process of selecting the contractor to conduct the feasibility study was furthest from being transparent and competitive and as a direct result of that unfair process; this resulted in the sub-optimal quality of output in the feasibility report.
As the spirit and principles of our Constitution compel, the organs of the State must follow the rule of law, and Singh reminded that the entire public procurement system in Guyana operates within a framework using five principles of good governance that are enshrined in the laws of Guyana, namely the procedures must be fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective.
“On all five of these benchmarks, this David Patterson fishy deal has failed. Unless there is a genuine national emergency such as the seawalls broke away, which would require urgent, unavoidable and unforeseen attention, the organs of the State must aim to make the competitive procurement of goods and services their raison d’être at all time,” he argued.
Unfortunately, the financial analysts and politician said if one observes the procurement actions of Minister Patterson’s team, they did not follow the procurement legislation in procuring the services of LievenseCSO Engineering Contractor. Rather, it seems that it was made up as they went along.
From all appearance, Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson appears to have taken the lead role in this saga of public waste and financial extravagance, he opined. But Singh said what is more revolting is the massive amount of misinformation and untruths that are being peddled by the Ministry of the Presidency to cover up what he described as the “Hydra of Lerna”.
“It is awful to observe how Mr Joseph Harmon (Minister of State), uses his weekly press conference to attempt to whitewash the pertinent issues on the so-called fishy deal when the media raises them. He did no different on this fishy bridge deal,” Singh further stated.
The former AFC member criticised Harmon for his poor attempt at defending his colleague Minister. “Harmon is no Dr Roger Luncheon and in most cases, rather than doing justice to the poor attempt at ‘hitting the ball’, he gave away the whole wicket to the bowlers in a most juvenile fashion. At a minimum, Mr Harmon when he chooses to come to the defence of a bad procurement deal must know that open competition is the basis for efficient public procurement globally. It is the gold standard. So his defence of Mr Patterson’s team engaging in direct closed-door contracting of the bridge consultant to do the feasibility study for the design of the new proposed Demerara River bridge is most awkward and obnoxious?”
Singh did not stop there, but told Guyana Times International that the Government is importing unaccountability and non-transparency into the national procurement process using taxpayer funding, which must be rejected on all fronts. “And I can prove that this stuff is not proper. All we have to do is ask ourselves, would the international donor agencies like the IDB engage in such an uncompetitive tender process in this situation? So why does Mr Patterson think he has the right to force such a non-competitive, non-transparent financial deal down the throats of the taxpayers?”