General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has reiterated the government’s efforts towards improving transparency within the procurement system.
He made these statements in response to allegations of corruption within the tendering process. Dr Jagdeo acknowledged that the procurement system is not without its problems, but the government has been implementing extensive measures to clean up the system.
“The attempt to clean up this system has been enormous. For those who want a more nuanced study and a technical analysis of the fight against corruption in the tendering. They will go to the facts, not the anecdotes,” he stated at Thursday’s press conference.
According to Dr Jagdeo, a countrywide discussion, emphasising full compliance with the Procurement Act has been rolled out, led by himself and the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh.
Moreover, training sessions have been conducted with procurement officers. Public officials have been instructed to avoid bidding for projects within their ministries.
The GS further highlighted efforts to improve the system, particularly for small contractors. Since 2020, over 2,000 new small contractors have been established, with approximately 500-600, being Afro-Guyanese that did not exist in 2020.
“They’re now working and getting contracts,” he said.
Additionally, the administration has rectified a change implemented under the coalition government, regarding provisional contract sums.
Previously under PPP governments, contingency funds were used for escalations or variations in the work, requiring approval from the tendering authority. However, APNU introduced provisional sums that engineers could use at their discretion, potentially leading to misuse.
“That was changed last year. We discontinued it by circular. We just discovered that that was a feature that they had introduced that we were not aware of. So, there are lots of that,” Dr Jagdeo underscored.