Sole Sourced or Open Tender? Questions surface over contract awarded to ExxonMobil’s employee

May 17, 2019 News, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...ocal-content-policy/

In February, Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, had announced that Oil Consultant, Dr. Micha el Warner, was hired for $22M to complete Guyana’s draft Local Content Policy.

Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon

But several concerns were subsequently raised since Dr. Warner is also an employee of DAI, the contractor engaged by ExxonMobil to manage the Local Content Centre for Development located on South Road, Georgetown.

There, the official provides training on how local businesses can fit themselves into the supply chain.

Kaieteur News learnt that there are other local content experts who have no current attachment to an oil company and are not on an oil firm’s payroll but were not approached about the tender.

In light of this, questions are being raised on whether Dr. Warner was sole-sourced for the project. If he was not, and there was an open tender, who were the other individuals who sent in applications.

Energy Dept. Head, Mark Bynoe

Transparency advocates also want the Government to say when the tender for this project was made available, since the Ministry of the Presidency’s website has no such information about the contract nor does the Procurement Plan for the World Bank funded capacity development programme, which is managed by the Department of Energy.

At the Ministry of the Presidency, yesterday, Director General Joseph Harmon, was asked to provide answers to the aforementioned questions since he is responsible for helping President, David Granger manage the Energy Department.

Local Content Expert affiliated with ExxonMobil, Dr. Michael Warner

But Harmon was quick to pass the buck to Energy Department Head, Dr. Mark Bynoe.

Harmon said, “…These are matters that are dealt with by the Department of Energy and I cannot comment on the intricacies of whether it went to tender, sole-sourced or was based on specific qualifications of that person…I can’t give you a precise answer but the processes which are engaged by the Department of Energy are transparent…”

Asked to say if he can assure that answers can be provided for to the questions later yesterday or before the end of the week, the Director-General said he could not.

Harmon said that he will pass on the questions to Dr. Bynoe. This newspaper tried several times to contact Dr. Bynoe for a response on this matter yesterday but all efforts proved futile.