‘Defend yourself, Govt. can’t do that for you’ – Jagdeo tells ‘Guyanese Critic’

Jun 28, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday told Mikhail Rodrigues, known as ‘Guyanese Critic’ to defend himself and not rely on the Government of Guyana (GoG) to do so.

Rodrigues seemed disgruntled with a story published in the Thursday June 27, 2024 edition of the Kaieteur News headlined ‘Guyanese Critic’ gets another multi-million dollar contract. That story pointed out that the company Tepui Group – that is closely linked to Rodrigues, received another multi-million government contract despite failing miserably to meet specific criteria in another project that was awarded to the company last year.

The social media commentator told Jagdeo that there seems to be a fixation on Tepui Group, adding, “Like if I’m the only contractor in Guyana.”   He then asked the Vice President to put things into perspective about the number of contracts and the sums that are being spent by the government on infrastructural development.

In response, Jagdeo said, “You gotta defend yourself, don’t wait on government…” The Vice President was at the time hosting his weekely press conference at Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown.

“Well you have a duty also to defend your own company because often when the government puts out this information it seems as defending corruption…” the Vice President added.

Further, the Vice President disclosed that the government is actively addressing issues within the procurement system. “What we are planning to do because we have this problem at the Cabinet itself, when a paper goes to Cabinet often the Cabinet does not see all of the work that people (contractors) have in different agencies, so we are now going to introduce a prequalification system,” he explained.

Detailing how this system will function, Jagdeo explained that contractors will be pre-qualified based on their capability to undertake projects up to a specified amount.

For instance, Jagdeo said, “So if you are pre-qualified to do work up to half a billion dollars and you get one contract and you are at $450 million, when the paper goes to Cabinet, it would [show] that the contractor was pre-qualified for half a billion and already have a contract. Therefore, the Cabinet will say you can’t give another contract for $200 million or $300 million because they have reached their capacity.”

Highlighting the nationwide implementation of this prequalification system, the Vice President disclosed that all government entities will be required to report awarded contracts to a website to ensure transparency.

Jagdeo stated, “You don’t know if a man is working for multiple ministries so when you hear that [they received a contract], it is a surprise.”

Last month, it was revealed by the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) that Rodrigues had failed during the evaluation process for bids at the level of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), but was still handed a $865 million contract to build a pump station at Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara (WBD).

Kaieteur News understands that the PPC in its report highlighted several procurement breaches committed by Tepui and overlooked by NPTAB in awarding the pump station contract.

According to the document, NPTAB ignored several key details when it came to the company satisfying the evaluation criteria for the award of the $865M deal.

Tepui failed to meet the following:

• Failed to meet $8M bid security amount
• Failed to demonstrate construction experience
• No experience with project of similar nature
• No record of past work experience
• Failed to demonstrate financial capacity
• No audited financial statements
• No evidence of ownership and or possession of key equipment

Meanwhile, a few months ago, Rodrigues during one of his morning programmes aired live on social media revealed that he received a multi-million-dollar contract from the Ministry of Housing.

Similarly, the PPC in its report had revealed that during the evaluation period for the pump station contract, Tepui had listed a $313 million contract with Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) which falls under the Housing Ministry, for the upgrade of roads in Block 3, Great Diamond. It was stated that the contract is dated February 24th, 2023.

The document also states that the company also received other government contracts. Tepui had submitted a document to show the list of projects it has done which includes the rehabilitation of South Pakistan Street and rehabilitation of Tyre Shop Street, valued at $25 million and $24 million respectively. Both contracts were purportedly awarded by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. It should be noted, however, that the dates of those contracts were not stated.

Following the revelation, checks were made by this publication on the NPTAB website for other contracts awarded to the Tepui Group but to no avail. As such, Kaieteur News resorted to asking Vice President Jagdeo during one of his weekly press conferences whether it was true that Rodrigues’ company received another government contract.

While Jagdeo was unable to confirm if Tepui Group did receive the contract, he directed the publication to check online since all contracts are made public.

It should be noted that as of June 27, 2024, the only contract listed as awarded to Tepui on NPTAB’s website is the Belle Vue pump station contract.

In light of recent revelation that Tepui received another multi-million contract, contact was made with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CHPA, Mr. Sherwyn Greaves on Wednesday for details on the CHPA contracts that were awarded to Tepui.

In response, Mr. Greaves noted that he will get the information and return the call. No information has since been provided by Greaves.

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• criteria, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, Government, Mikhail Rodrigues popularly known as the ‘Guyanese Critic’, Vice President

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