Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 14, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
There is a memorable scene, involving Dustin Hoffman, in the hit-movie Kramer v. Kramer. The lead character, played by Hoffman, is in the midst of a custody battle with his estranged wife when he loses his job as an advertising executive.
His lawyer tells him that he does not stand a ghost of a chance in obtaining custody of his son if he is out of a job. And so the lead star begins a frantic search for an immediate job since the custody hearing was in a matter of days.
He responds to a classified advertisement for a job with an advertising firm. The job is far below his pay grade. During the interview – and this is the relevant part – he takes along an album with illustrations of his work. Today we call them ‘demos’ or ‘samples’. He wants to show the interviewers the type and quality of work of which he is capable.
The interviewers are impressed but are puzzled, and do ask why he was applying for a job for which he was obviously overqualified. He simply told them that he needed a job and based on the ‘demos’, which he submitted, he got the job.
A client would often ask to see a ‘demo’ or ‘sample’ of the work, which an advertising firm can produce. They would then make an assessment either to hire or to prequalify that firm. But it is unheard of to be paying the advertising firm for a ‘demo’, in advance of a valid contract or in order to be prequalified.
The Department of Energy of the Ministry of the Presidency recently asked a local advertising company for ‘demos’ in the form of 3 sixty-second video ads. The manager of the advertising firm is reported in the media as saying that when he was approached, he was informed that the Department of Energy was in the process of reviewing the work of a number of service providers in an effort to find a suitable fit for the department.
If so, then why was the advertising agency paid? Why pay more than US$4,000 for a ‘demo’ in order to assess the agency’s readiness to provide the required services? Were other advertising agencies approached and were they paid US$4,000 also to produce 3 sixty-second ‘demos’?
The payment of more than US$4,000 amounts to a contract. If no other bidders were invited to tender ‘demos’ and were not similarly paid for the demos, then this payment amounts to single-sourcing.
The Procurement Act provides that the procuring entity may engage in single-source procurement when the good of service being demanded is only available from one person or entity or when that person of entity has exclusive rights to that good or service.
The government may also single-source for goods and services which are highly complex or specialized in nature, and which are only available from one source. In addition, single-sourcing may occur when there is a national catastrophe or in the interest of national security.
None of these apply in this case. The Department of Energy and the Ministry of the Presidency must therefore answer the following questions:
1) Were any other advertising firms approached and asked to provide the same services as the firm which was paid more than US$4,000 and were these other firms, if any, paid the same amount?;
2) Why if the Department of Energy was merely reviewing the work of service providers, in order to find a suitable provider, was it necessary to pay for the ‘demos’?
The Department of Energy and the Ministry of the Presidency must also explain the hefty cost for the 3 sixty-second ‘adverts’. Kaieteur Radio paid an average of between US$20 and US$30 each for thirty-second audio ‘adverts’. And these audio recordings were of a very high quality.
It is accepted that what the Department of Energy and the Ministry of the Presidency were asking for was video presentations and for sixty seconds. But why almost US$1,500 per ad?
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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