Georgetown: The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) continues to strengthen the process of public procurement and as a result of this focus, there have been constant engagements with evaluators. In this regard, the Board held a workshop today at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC), geared to continuously strengthen the public procurement process.
High on the cards today was addressing ways of decimating threats and the perception of corruption. Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Juan Edghill from the onset of his presentation emphasised the need for evaluators to speak out against every public corrupt official, those who are negligent in the performance of their duty, and those whose performance/practice brings the service into disrepute.
Evaluators involved in the public procurement and tendering process gathered at a workshop aimed at enhancing their skills
“If there is a message that I can give to you is for us to mount an offensive by the way we perform that decimates the threats and perception of corruption…no matter what we do, if there is a perception that people are being influenced, people are being politically directed, people are selling out to friends (like I have seen in a an advertisement in a daily newspapers); it will undermine public confidence in our procurement system,” he said.
The Minister indicated that there is a culture in Guyana where people make statements in a very irresponsible manner and without facts. “I must say that that is disgusting especially when we have dedicated, hard working public servants who are trying to do their best and they have people for their own personal agenda putting question marks over their performance, conduct and actions,” he said.
Coming out of today’s session it is hoped that the evaluators would be able to carefully articulate a path of how they can remove this threat and perception of corruption. In this regard, the Minister outlined three factors which he believes can immediately strengthen the procurement process. and more particularly at the level of the evaluators and the evaluation of tenders.
Minister Edghill asked that with immediate effect every evaluator should sign a confidentiality declaration and a conflict of interest declaration, and that they file returns with the Integrity Commission. These measures exist in some international agencies; one such is the European Union.
He indicated that President Donald Ramotar has also been emphasising to the Members of the Cabinet that they are required, by virtue of their office, to fill returns with the Integrity Commission, and these must be up to date.
“The more transparent a process is the more efficient our system will be…transparency promotes a more competitive environment and as a consequence we get greater value for money,” the Minister emphasised.
In this regard, he posited that the intention of the workshop was to reinforce the requirements for the evaluation of bids so as to ensure that evaluators are thorough, ensure the difficult questions are answered and that their competencies are enhanced.
“We are doing this today because as a government we are committed to ensuring that as custodians of the public purse, the processes that are employed for public expenditure are good, are being handled by competent, professional people, and that at the end of the day we are getting value for money,” Minister Edghill stressed.
The Minister noted that Guyana has one of the most advanced procurement procedures in this part of the world.
“I believe that as we examine and strengthen public procurement, we will be strengthening good governance, we will be encouraging confidence in our system and as public servants you will be lending your hand and playing your role in making Guyana a better place,” Minister Edghill said.
The Minister saluted all the officers who operate in a culture that is very unthankful for their services they render.
“I equally believe that those of us who perform with high levels of integrity and perform our duties in a manner that make our agency succeed, and to ensure that Guyana is proud and we are building this nation must be applauded,” he added.
Head of the Project Cycle Management Division, Tarachand Balgobin noted that recently there has been a lot of commentary on the procurement process which in many cases revolve upon the duties, responsibilities and actions of public officials, however much of it is not justified.
Procurement is not an event but a process, and for public officials, it starts when the budget is approved or even beyond that to when the project is conceived in the minds of the financial heads which include budget officers and permanent secretaries.
“One of the most important features of that process is the process of doing evaluation and that is the process of selecting, making a conscientious decision that from among competing interests for a project you will select one of them…regrettably in this world you can’t have two winners in the process; there is one winner and naturally some amount of anxiety, speculation and confusion can and will and does arise in that process,” he said.
Further, evaluators are called upon to defend the decision they have taken and the public is watching, particularly the Parliamentary configuration.
The evaluators were taken through discussions and case studies on the evaluation process which took into consideration the public bid opening, appointment of the evaluation team, preliminary examination of bids, correction of arithmetic errors, deviations, conversion of common currency, evaluation criteria, price adjustment and delivery schedule.
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