SOCU questions Patterson again about bridge ...
Court of Justice ruling of 2006 in the case of Brent Griffith vs the GRA. She also charged that the Minister has committed numerous infractions of the Procurement Act, the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act Section 85 (b), The Audit Act, and the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, with regard to the entire process leading up to the award of the contract and subsequent payments to the company into 2018, using revenues of the DHBC Asphalt Plant. “This level of recklessness and irresponsible behavior with public funds and public projects must not be condoned,” she had written.
The then PPP/C Chief Whip alleged that the tender process was manipulated to ensure the award of the contract for the feasibility study to LievenseCSO and that revenue generated by the DHBC Asphalt Plant which accounts for years 2017 and 2018, and totalling $293,439,182, was used after the contract was publicly known to have ended. As a result, she said the Auditor General needs to examine the contract and its duration and investigate the movement of those monies for the years 2017 and 2018 from the DHBC Asphalt Plant, with a view to seeing who were its recipients and the availability of documents to substantiate the disbursements.
Former PPC Chairperson Carol Corbin told Stabroek News yesterday that the Commission had responded to Teixeira, explaining that her findings would be best suited for an investigation by the Auditor General.
“It was about alleged overpayments and not the procurement process. We responded to her and advised that since this was now in respect of payments made, the auditor general should be asked to pursue the matter. We then wrote the Auditor General and asked him to follow up in keeping with his statutory obligations. I don’t think that they found anything of significance,” Corbin noted.