…Committee scrutinises prolonged execution of contracts

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday heard that the Guyana Police Force is working to recover monies that were paid to officers for the years 2017 and 2018, in cases of overpayment.

From seven officers being overpaid in 2017, this number hiked to 88 in 2018. In representing the Guyana Police Force, Senior superintendent Calvin Brutus told the Committee that this was due to slothful communication.
Brutus said the Force is making efforts to recover those monies and reduce the occurrence on such an alarming scale.
While ten members have agreed to have monies deduced from their monthly salaries, the Force has written former members that were overpaid and requested that these monies be repaid.

“These overpayments occurred because of the pace at which the information was received at the head office to effect those adjustments…What we’ve done so far is some members that joined the Force, they have given consent to have monies deducted from their current salaries on a monthly basis.”
Brutus added, “We have written letters to former members who were overpaid informing them of the amount they were overpaid and requesting that they make good on repaying those monies within a specified time. Some letters were served; some we could not locate them.”
The Permanent Secretary of the Home Affairs Ministry has been engaged for further action in relation to those officers who could not be reached via letter. The Committee was also informed that mechanisms were activated to prevent a recurrence.
“We have also reiterated to the Commanders and Heads of Departments that they enforce the policy of having those reports coming within 72-hour period…and also informing us in an informal way via by way of a cell phone call so that preliminary action can be taken to safeguard against overpayment of salaries.”
In 2021, the Committee had examined the Auditor General’s 2016 findings on the Ministry of Public Security, which noted that the GPF was still to recover some $2.264 million in salaries that were overpaid to employees in the Force between 2010 and 2012.

Contract
The PAC also raised questions and clarifications over the delay in supply of items by a contractor back in 2017 under the then Public Security Ministry, despite being paid in full.
The contractor, who was paid 100 per cent of a $16.9 million contract for supplies to the Guyana Forensic Laboratory in 2017, was scrutinised after failure to fulfil this obligation in a timely manner.
Caribbean Medical Supplies was awarded a contract by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) valued $16.9 million and paid 100 per cent for drugs and medical supplies for the Guyana Forensic Laboratory. However, $10.8 million in supplies remained outstanding until 2018.
This matter was flagged by the Auditor General in his annual report, and raised by Member of the Public Accounts Committee, Bishop Juan Edghill during Monday’s meeting.
Information provided by the PAC found that there were issues with storage at the forensic lab so a decision was made to provide these items on request but the supplier failed to provide it in a timely manner.
“How could you pay 100 per cent because of a space problem? The supplies were not there. How could you pay?” Edghill questioned.
Audrey Badley of the Audit Office informed that by 2019, only $14.7 million was provided, with the Ministry refunded by the company for the remainder. A bond was issued for materials that were not supplied.
“The full amount was paid to the supplier. In September of 2018, only $6 million of supplies were received. So, the supplier failed to supply all the items at that time,” Badley outlined.
A request was made for the contract to be provided to the PAC for further scrutiny. Presently, the Committee was told that the Ministry has put systems in place to build capacity in contract management and timely deliveries.
Opposition Member on the Committee, Juretha Fernandes commented that timely fulfilment of contracts is an issue which has been plaguing the public sector for many years and it must be addressed.

“If you go back as far as the Audit Office has been providing and producing audit reports, you will see similar matters – almost identical to each other when it comes to payments being made in full and items not being delivered. We have instances that we have seen and made note of as far back as you can track and trace that some of the items have been written off because there was no way they could have been recovered.”
She added, “There’s definitely need for us to look at this matter. I have been saying that we need to look at these matters in a holistic way because there’s definitely issues that needs to be fixed in the way the system is operating…Across agencies, we have been dealing with these matters from as far as the audit office has been doing reports and what we need to endeavour to do is provide a system in which we can safeguard against it.”
Meanwhile, since there was no engagement between the former and current officers of the Ministry to provide answers to the Committee on several matters, they were asked to prepare and return at a later date. (G12)