A $14.5M incestuous relationship… GECOM accepted batteries quotes from three businesses linked to Brasse brothers

A $14.5M incestuous relationship … GECOM accepted batteries quotes from three businesses linked to Brasse brothers

Oct 06, 2016, News, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....-to-brasse-brothers/

-entity deliberately hid $29M order from Cabinet by contract splitting

Two contracts to supply Duracell batteries for the May 11, 2015 national elections reveal more shocking evidence of procurement irregularities by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

According to tender documents seen by Kaieteur News, last year GECOM asked the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to approve two contracts totalling $29,061,480.

From details of the tender documents submitted by GECOM, not only did the entity accept two quotes from Mobile Authority and Standard Distributors, it also received one from a business named A1 Imports, which is listed to a Robb Street address linked to Water Street businessman, Michael Brasse.

Brasse is the same person who owns Mobile Authority, the business which received the contracts to supply the $29M in Duracell batteries for the elections. Brasse’s brother, Mahendra, owns Standard Distributors, a King Street business.

A 1 Imports, which supplied a quote, has an address listed as 44 Robb Street in its quote which said it would charge $1,116 for an original Duracell Coppertop D Side Alkaline battery to be imported from the US.

A1 Imports’ contact person on the quote was listed as one Y.A. Hussain. According to information at the Registry, A1 Imports is registered to an address in Grove, East Bank Demerara.

In the GTT telephone directory, that Robb Street address is the same one as Mibra Trading, another business registered to Brasse.

Under procurement regulations, some state institutions are allowed to collect three quotes from separate businesses to ensure transparency for contracts.

GECOM has authorisation to issue contracts below $250,000. Above that, the contract has to be approved by NPTAB.

Above $15M has to be approved by both NPTAB and the Cabinet.
In all the scenarios, GECOM is the one that recommends which business gets the contracts.

GECOM, currently under a major probe by state auditors, would be hard pressed to explain away how it allowed two brothers, and a third business that is closely linked to one of them, to submit quotes.

There is growing anger over what appeared to be major procurement contract breaches by GECOM for last year’s elections. A number of businesses have been complaining of being used to supply quotes but sidelined.

The Brasses received over 40 percent of $700M-plus contracts that were awarded through GECOM last year.

With regards to the Duracell batteries orders, in the first application to the NPTAB on April 17, 2015, GECOM’s Chief Executive Officer, Keith Lowenfield, recommended in a covering letter that Mobile Authority be granted a contract for $14,532,480. The NPTAB approval was for $14,529,000.

Lowenfield, in his arguments to NPTAB, said the 14,500 batteries were critical to providing alternative “energy supply” to ensure a smooth polling day process.

Mobile Authority quoted $999 for one of the batteries; Standard Distributors $1,155 while A1 Imports said that it will sell one for $1,116.

The NPTAB approval was granted on April 23.

GECOM waited two more weeks, on May 6, 2015 (or five days before elections) to apply for another order of 14,500 batteries of similar specifications.

The covering letter from the CEO was exactly the same he had sent to NPTAB on April 23, 2015 for the previous order.

It is from all indications a clear case of contract splitting by GECOM, to avoid the contract from going over the $15M mark that would have required Cabinet’s attention and possible scrutiny.

From indications GECOM did not need all those 29,000 batteries, assuming that all were delivered.

There were 2,299 polling stations for the elections with each using on average eight of the D batteries. This meant that theoretically, GECOM needed just around 20,000 batteries at the most.

The batteries purchases would mirror a number of other questionable transactions.

For instance…a $14,868,000 order for 2,400 pliers.
GECOM took three quotes from one major business and appeared to have deliberately submitted a high one for $9,000. Somebody at GECOM deliberately hid the quotes for some cheaper pliers. In the end, Standard Distributors (Mahendra Brasse) “won” the contract.

There were other contracts too like the supply of toners, stationery, office furniture and equipment in which evidence were seen that the Brasse brothers were highly favored.

However, the major one was a $100M contract award to Mobile Authority for the supply of 50 communication radio sets.

GECOM appeared to have allowed a fake quote from Massy Technologies to be slipped into the tender documents. Massy denied it issued the quote.

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