Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 24, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The government with each passing day is behaving as if it does not care about its image and reputation. It is also approaching important issues with an attitude that is contemptuous and presumptuous.
How else does one explain the reaction of the Ministry of Finance to reports about value for money in relation to the Stanleytown Pump Station? This newspaper had reported that it was able to source a quotation for the same model and engine for the pump and engine used in that project for less than fifty million of the price quoted.
One would have expected that in such a situation, the Ministry of Finance would have defended the price which the taxpayers of this country were charged.
One would have expected that it would have come out and explained why the cost was so prohibitive, and launch an investigation to ascertain what went wrong.
Instead of doing this, the Ministry of Finance in a response that was contemptuous of the intelligence of the Guyanese people, came out and simply said that if Kaieteur News was capable of supplying the pump and the engine for a sum lower than the contract price, it should have tendered for the contract.
Can you believe this? Can you believe this is the response of the Ministry of Finance? I am convinced that this Ministry, given this response, should no longer be entrusted with managing the finances of this country and I call on the international community to ensure that the Ministry of Finance retract this explanation or face never again obtaining a blind cent in grant finances.
Instead of asking Kaieteur News to tender for public contracts, the Ministry of Finance should have recognised that there is a serious problem with this particular problem and should have ordered an immediate investigation into this matter.
Many years ago when there was a problem with a Sea Defence Porject, in this instance, over the quality of works done, the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan ordered a Commission of Inquiry to get to the bottom of the contract.
There is absolutely no excuse why, given what this newspaper has unearthed in relation to the Stanleytown Pumping Station, instead of calling on this newspaper to become a contracting firm, the Ministry of Finance did not order an investigation into why the pump and engine are so highly priced.
The Ministry of Finance’s position is that this project was tendered publicly and a contract was awarded on the basis of the bids received. However, this does not absolve the National Procurement Board from ensuring that taxpayers obtain value for money. It does not absolve the same Board from rejecting all the tenders if it felt that the prices of the engine and the pump were overpriced.
Tenders have historically been rejected if they are too high. In this instance, new tenders would be invited. The Ministry of Finance therefore needs to examine why this did not happen in relation to this project.
It also needs to examine how realistic was the engineer’s estimate since this estimate usually forms the basis of the award of the contract. It needs to demand the report of the evaluation committee that examined the bids for this project.
The Kaieteur News has been seeking to obtain just who were the persons on the evaluation committee so that an explanation could be forthcoming. We are asking the Procurement Board and the Ministry of Finance to allow this newspaper to have access to the members of the evaluation committee that considered this bid as well as to the Engineer’s estimate.
Just who are the persons that comprise the National Procurmeent Board? Just how is the evaluation committees constituted? Just who approved the contract for the Stanleytown pump and engine?
The International donor community, especially those that financed these works needs to take an interest in what is taking place with these contracts.
They need to take a grip of the situation since the problems that are now surfacing in relation to contracts in the agricultural sector will cause a credibility crisis for these donor countries and banks.
The suppliers of the funds for these projects therefore need to demand an investigation into the contracts for which problems have been highlighted by this newspaper.
The funds for foreign financed projects come from the taxpayers of those foreign countries and therefore the agencies responsible for this financing need to ensure that there are no inflated prices.
The international community must now act. They must signal to the government that they, the donor community, will no longer countenance responses such as the one that emanated from the Ministry of Finance, when it comes to the question of the use of funds for public projects.
The international community needs to say to the government that it will no longer release grant financing unless this sad state of affairs is corrected and until such time as an investigation is launched into the award of contracts by the Drainage and Irrigation Board.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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