Auditor General report confirms massive irregularities at GECOM

Nov 05, 2017 News, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...gularities-at-gecom/

-contract splitting, awards to highest bidders, $$$ wasted on items not needed

A year of denial of wrongdoings at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is not standing up to the test as state auditors have confirmed serious procurement breaches at the entity.

GECOM is the body that oversees general and local elections in Guyana and is suppose to be above board with absolutely no questions about its accountability and transparency.

GECOM is considered so critical to the holding of free and fair elections in Guyana that there is an ongoing quarrel, stretching back to February, over the selection of a chairperson.

Last year, amidst investigations by this newspaper stemming from complaints by whistleblowers, a number of worrying things were found, involving contracts of several hundred of millions of dollars.

GECOM’s in the throes of seeing its Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally, retiring, stayed largely silent on the allegations of fraud, only saying that it is awaiting the outcome of investigations by the Audit Office.

Auditors descended on GECOM’s facilities shortly after the stories broke.
Earlier this year, in clear retaliation of the pieces by Kaieteur News, GECOM pulled their ads from the newspaper. It was only recently that one placement was made after the matter was ventilated.

The fact that GECOM depends on taxpayers dollars to carry out its work, including the issuance of identification cards, plays a huge role as the entity has to abide with national procurement laws.

On Thursday, the Auditor General’s report for public spending was released. There were three pages of the report dedicated to the probe at GECOM, with disclosures that separate reports would also be coming.

The AG report focused on the now infamous $100M purchase of communication radios, as well as millions more paid for toners for printers, and nippers for ballot boxes.

The purchases all had to do with 2015 general elections.
Only 5 issued
According to the report, a special investigation into the acquisition of radios in 2015 revealed that only five of the 50 radio sets ordered were ever issued despite the emergency reasons advanced.

That shockingly meant 45 radio sets, including 15 Barrett and 30 ICOM, valued approximately $89.6M, were not utilized by the Commission.

In September, when checks were made by state auditors, six radio sets valued approximately $11.946M were inoperable.

Auditors found that the commission’s secretariat, headed by Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, did not use public tendering for the procurement of the radio sets, as the entity cited time constraints.

Requests for Quotations (RFQs) were sent out by the Administrative Department to three suppliers for the supply of 50 HF Barrett radios (brand of radios specified).

However, GECOM’s Administrative Department recommended the award to a supplier who quoted for two different brands and three types of radios even though one supplier met the criteria.

GECOM later claimed that the decision to go with Mobile Authority, a Water Street business owned by Michael Brasse, was based on the lowest contract price and not the types or brand of radios.

In fact, the GECOM only sought approval of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), after it had already sought quotations from suppliers and had even evaluated those quotations- a clear breach of the procurement process.

To rub salt on the wound, GECOM’s Administrative Department also evaluated the bids, another breach.

“Since the contract was signed a mere six days prior to the hosting of the Elections, it would have been impractical to utilize the radios purchased, as intended,” the Auditor General report noted.

Auditors said that it will be issuing a separate report on the investigation.
GECOM’s procurement breaches did not stop at radios.

Not needed
It also extended to toners for the many printers and photocopiers that GECOM had. The problem with this, auditors said, is GECOM did not prove its case that the toners were needed and there was no evidence that the toners were given out in a hurry to the various departments to use. In fact, GECOM was left with shelves of those toners after the elections.

The audit report said that investigations into the acquisition of toners and cartridges in 2015 and 2016 revealed that four contracts amounting to $38.464M were awarded to the same supplier, M-Tech Business Solutions, for the acquisition of ink toners/cartridges using the restrictive method of procurement.

M-Tech is also, incidentally, owned by Brasse.

“In three instances the contracts were awarded to the highest bidder; whilst, in the other instance, the contract was awarded to the second highest bidder. Had these contracts been awarded to the lowest bidder, the Commission would have saved a sum of $18.988M,” the report said.

With regards to the purchase of nippers for the ballot boxes, GECOM in its request for quotations asked for Klein pliers.

However, the secretariat did not even considered what it asked for. Rather, it went for the more expensive Felo nippers.

State auditors, in the reports, said that GECOM could have saved taxpayers $2.988M if the Klein pliers were purchased instead of the Felo nippers.

GECOM reportedly signed a contract with GECOM from Standard Distributors after also getting quotes from Fix-It Hardware and National Hardware.

It so happens Standard Distributors is owned by King Street businessman, Mahendra Brasse- brother of Michael Brasse.

In 2015, according GECOM figures, it doled out over $700M in contracts with more than 40 percent alone going to the two Brasse brothers.

They were in all kinds of things. They supplied batteries, toners, chairs, stationeries and the now infamous communications radio sets.

According to the Auditor General report, there were other cases that it found with GECOM’s purchasing.

For example, to escape the eyes of the Cabinet of Ministers, it split 11 contracts, amounting to $101.616M. The contracts were split in amounts of four, a situation which raises serious questions over the transparency of the transactions.

With Justice James Patterson recently sworn in as GECOM’s Chairman, Opposition commissioners have made it clear that they intend to raise the fraud issues when a meeting is convened.

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