The NPTAB

Oct 02, 2023 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) has outdone itself. What is going on at NPTAB that those without the requisite criteria of skills, and track record, among crucial eligibility components, can bid for contracts in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and be declared the winning bidder? Since officials have sworn themselves to silence, we have a recommendation to make. Perhaps, it is time that NPTAB clears the air and inform Guyanese of a new criterion that is mandatory for successful bidding considerations. That is, political affiliation is the most important consideration, and the higher and tighter the relationship with those at the top of the PPPC Government food chain, the more unbeatable the bid submitted.

This dog and pony show about sealed bids and deadline for bids and nonnegotiable qualifications for bids should all be done away with, be finally over. Let this charade and sordidness be brought to an end, and genuinely competitive bidders be put out of their misery. Be done with all these pretenses about the lowest bid not necessarily being the one to be accepted, and the NPTAB team of reviewers and approvers having the authority to accept or reject any bid for any reason. Certainly, there is a little ray of light there, in that NPTAB can, indeed, reject out of hand any bid, which is why the best bidder for a public works project sometimes ends up in the losing column. It is also why the inexplicable and the ugly occurs when groups that have no right to win any bidding for any infrastructure work involving taxpayers’ money turn out to be the winners.

It is inconceivable to us at this publication that NPTAB could drum up, or pluck out of thin air, any rationale that justifies what took place in that a particular group wins a bid for a government project. Was it because of a side street media operator, a low gravy media contributor, was listed as a principal in that bidding group? Was it because the same principal is closely, some would say embarrassingly, wrapped up with a politician of unmatched power in Guyana? Was it because the very presence of that name sent messages to the NPTAB screeners and evaluators that this is the one that has to gain the nod, and that there is no other way that it can be?

NPTAB has done this before with other winning bids that made no sense, and those were what had all the prints that pointed to political weight being applied, and politics and its influence being part of the mix. To jog the memory of Guyanese, one was for a multimillion-dollar facility in Region 10 that was awarded to some exciting people known to be very close to the PPPC Government. Where NPTAB was bold before with other baffling bid decisions, it is now unabashedly brazen in this latest instance involving a fake personality that is an unending source of embarrassment to the media profession. In effect, NPTAB has lost any lingering credibility that it may once have been able to claim.

The latest NPTAB development has generated a furious outcry from the Opposition, leading it to rail about rampant corruption, and the need for an urgent investigation. We believe that the entire tender process is now in shambles, thanks to political interference and the premium placed by NPTAB on aligning with political wishes and considerations. It is revealing about how the PPPC Government operates: its main people talk from one side of their mouths about good governance, while on the other side what comes out is what no honest citizen of this country could ever overlook or condone. It is one thing to try to pull a fast one on the side, and with something small that could slip under the radar. It is quite another when the brass-faced takes center-stage, and causes recoiling in principled citizens.

When these shenanigans become public, Guyanese come to realize how they are being mocked, while their tax dollars are gifted to the cabal of political soup drinkers, political hangers on, and political cronies. NPTAB is not about a tender process anymore, but botched abortions occurring in full public view.