Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 04, 2010 News
– Regional Chairman
Chairman of the Region Four Democratic Council, Clement Corlette is convinced that the present law that governs the tender process with specific regards to the Regional Tender Board is a recipe for disaster.
Corlette believes that had the Regional Tender Board been functioning as it did in the past, a lot of the discrepancies that occurred under embattled Regional Executive Officer Shafdar Ali could have been detected earlier.
Ali, who was also head of the Regional Tender Board for Region Four, is currently in police custody assisting with investigations in the alleged misappropriation of millions of dollars.
According to the Regional Chairman, the Regional Tender Board currently operates without any oversight control body.
He said that the Regional Democratic Council had complained about the situation but the complaints were brushed aside.
“The Tender Board formation now provides opportunity for scheming,” Corlette told this newspaper during an exclusive interview yesterday.
According to the Regional Chairman, under the present system, the Regional Tender Board has no oversight body from the Regional Democratic Council. Instead the Board makes decisions within itself.
Corlette said that previously the Region’s Finance Committee and Regional Democratic Council had exercised control over the Regional Tender Board but this state of affairs was altered to give the Tender Board unlimited autonomy.
“They don’t even tell us when they are advertising (for contracts). In the old system you had to tell the Region, ‘Well Chairman we’re advertising for this bridge or this road’. They don’t have to do that now, once the government agrees,” the Region Four Chairman explained.
He stated that the government, riding on the wave of emotion, passed a law that suits them, which he said opened the way for more skullduggery.
The Regional Chairman explained that under the old system, the Region’s Finance Committee exercised oversight functions over the Tender Board. He said that he served on that committee until 2003.
He added that under that system the Finance Committee was able to throw out duplication of contracts.
“We did it to stop malpractices…like how two men get $90M (in contracts). It couldn’t happen, the council will stop it. That happened in 1992,” the Regional Chairman disclosed.
Back then, when the Tender Board met, it had to provide its decision to the Council’s Finance Committee he said that if the Finance Committee agrees with the decision of the Tender Board, it will approve the contracts and only then would the Tender Board execute its works.
“When it meets the RDC, the Finance Committee will announce that it had approved the contracts and the RDC will ratify them. We had controls then, we have no control now. This thing has opened a serious can of worms. The same REO is the Chairman now but (then) he was under restraint then by the Council through the finance committee. The RDC has been denuded of its power,” the Regional Chairman stated.
Corlette said that even the Central Tender Board has little or no control over the regional body.
“When the Tender Board here finishes with something it is actually finished. The most we can do is inspect the work and supervise it and the Finance Committee should be sure that the proper money is paid. That is all we are reduced to,” the Regional Chairman added.
With regards to the composition of the current Regional Tender Board for Region Four, Corlette said that he is officially unaware of its composition.
According to the Tender Board Law, the government will appoint three persons to the Board while the Regional Democratic Council will appoint two to make up the five-member team.
The Board has a life of two years and when this expires, the Regional Chairman usually consults the Council to determine its two representatives.
According to Corlette, the Region had submitted the names of two persons to sit on the current Regional Tender Board but no reply has been forthcoming with regards to acknowledgement of the recommended persons.
Despite this, Corlette said that the council was informed that the board had been constituted although no official documentation was proffered.
“As we speak, the clerk (Shafdar Ali), who is not here with us keeps saying that it is constituted and every time I say give me the letter he has never done so,” Corlette stated.
He said that he contacted officials from the Central Tender Board and they too could not provide him with the documentation about the constituted board.
At the moment he is not inclined to recognize the Board.
“I am saying categorically, that tender board last year, I have serious misgivings about it. We didn’t have any say in that Tender Board. We did not submit names and I don’t know any of the people there,” the Region Four Chairman said.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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