Region Six tender board repeatedly failed to award contracts to lowest, most competitive bidders

-Auditor General’s report

The Regional Tender Board of Region 6 (East Berbice-Corentyne) repeatedly failed to award maintenance contracts to the lowest bidder last year, the Auditor General has found.

The 2015 Auditor General’s report, which was recently laid in the National Assembly, states that while $504.853 million of $518.738 million allocated for maintenance was spent in the period, $147.586 million of that sum represented 79 contracts which “were not awarded to the lowest or most competitive bidder.”

In response to the observation, the regional accounting office noted that the reason the lowest bidder was not awarded the contract was “inadvertently not included in the Minutes.”

The Regional Tender Board is chaired by the Regional Executive Officer (REO). At the time of the award, that officer was Dr Veerasammy Ramayya. Ramayya has since resigned citing “unbearable” circumstances. Efforts to contact him for a comment on this matter proved futile as his phone went unanswered.

Ramayya had been at loggerheads with the regional administration for months, while it accused him of him not functioning Regional Tender Board adequately in his position.

Other concerns raised about the region in the AG’s report include the execution of a contract for the construction of the Outpatient Department Building Phase 2 at New Amsterdam Hospital.

The report states that this contract was awarded in the sum of $7.990 million to the sixth lowest of seven bidders.

“There was an approved variation of $1.006 million, giving a final project cost of $8.196 million against an Engineer’s Estimate of $8.979. As of December 31, 2015, the contractor was paid in full… [and] the works deemed completed… [however] it was noted that the scope of works was significantly altered after the award, resulting in ceiling works, electrical installations [etc] not being completed,” the report said, while adding that the final payment voucher was not seen and therefore could not be correlated with the actual works completed.

Additional questions were raised about $286.129 million spent on the purchase of fuel and lubricants for consumption by vehicles, plant and equipment owned and operated by the region. A physical count of these products at the Whim Stores showed $836,000 in discrepancies.