| National Procurement and Tender Board sheds spotlight on its operations |  |  |  |
| Written by GINA |
| Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:30 |
THE cameras were invited into exclusive rooms while explanations about the tender evaluation process were offered in detail as the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) went public on its procedure of scrutinising, appraising and offering recommendations to contract bids.  Chairman of the NPTAB, Mr. Donald De Clou It was as a result of speculations and a few loopholes in the systems that prompted the passage of the Procurement Act of 2003 in the National Assembly to promote accountability, transparency, competitiveness and economic growth. That Act paved the way for reformation leading to the establishment of the NPTAB that is tasked with evaluating tenders and implementing policies in accordance with regional and international standards. The process begins with the relevant ministries preparing procurement and tender notices and advertising these in the national newspapers. The recent setting up of an e-procure website, where all government ads are available online supplemented the effort. Interested bidders respond by obtaining tender documents and submitting their tenders which are then referred to the NPTAB for review. Bid documents are scrutinised by about 15 evaluators who are required by the Procurement Act to conduct the evaluation in six days. Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh described the evaluators as a cadre of technical personnel drawn from a diverse range of professional backgrounds. “The board doesn’t act in an uninformed, unsupported, un-researched manner. The board is supported by rigorous, technical evaluations…the aspersions cast on our procurement, in fact, is an insult to the professionalism of the hundreds of people who participate in this process,” Minister Singh said. Once approved, the contract is submitted to the Cabinet for a ‘no objection’ and once given the green light, an award notice is issued which paves the way for the final stage where relevant ministry officials would sign the contracts. There are instances where Cabinet, if dissatisfied, can request that the tender board review the award and other instances where provisions under the Procurement Act allow bidders to object with probable reason, if the contract goes to another. Such was the case with Fedders-Lloyd which lodged an objection to the award that went to Surendra Engineering Company of India last year for construction of the Specialty Hospital at Liliendaal. Fedders- Lloyd lodged an objection in September last year on the premise that their bid was the lowest. The complaint prompted review of the entire contract by the Ministry of Health. But there are other factors beyond the notion of the lowest bid that influence the award, according to Chairman of the NPTAB Donald De Clou who has been serving in that capacity since 2004. He stated that it could be that the bidder failed to sign the tender document, or had an invalid National Insurance Scheme (NIS) or Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) compliance certificate. “ And even in some instances where everything would have been ok and you were the lowest response, the contract was not awarded because the value may have been way above the sum that was allocated for the project,” De Clou explained. The chairman took the producers of ‘Focus’ on a walkthrough of the process, beginning with the opening of the tender boxes, logging of the envelopes and a team of bidders who would conduct a vetting process to ensure no bids are left behind. He also took cameras to the meeting room of the tender opening committee, comprising the deputy chairpersons of the board, personnel to unravel the bids and others who make announcements relating to the bidder’s name, tender number and whether there are accompanying compliance documents.
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