GUYANA | Despite NPTA Report, Teixeira denies racism in contract awards

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, December 9, 2022 - Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira has  sought to  dispelled claims of discrimination in the awarding of contracts to companies owned by Afro-Guyanese for government projects.

Teixeira on Wednesday evening, appeared on a programme ‘The Guyana Dialogue’ where she addressed the assertion that the PPP/C Administration has awarded contracts mainly to Indo-Guyanese-owned businesses since it assumed office.

The senior government functionary reminded that Guyana has strong constitutional provisions in place that deal specifically with anti-corruption and procurement.

For example, contracts have to go through the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) before they are awarded to contractors. Contracts $16 million and over are forwarded to the Cabinet for a no-objection. The Cabinet can only grant no-objections, not award contracts.

In 2020, 331 contracts were granted no-objection by the Cabinet, 1,608 in 2021 and 1,790 in 2022. In total, around 4,000 contracts were granted with no-objection by the Cabinet.

The minister explained also, that contracts are tendered at various levels of local government including the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCS), Neighbourhood Democratic Councils, municipalities and ministries.

She said when the opposition members talk about discrimination in contracts, they must be challenged to bring the facts and statistics.

“First of all, there are small contracts that ministries are allowed to have, that they are basically service contracts and these go to a ministerial tender board and they also have to go to the National Tender Board,” she said.

Minister Teixeira highlighted that a claim of marginalisation cannot be made in a country where no one ethnic group is over 50 per cent.

 “What is wrong with a contractor, regardless of his/her ethnicity getting a job based on providing the requirements and specifications and financing to be able to do the job. And what if they don’t do the job? Well, they will be terminated and we go to tender again and we bring up another contractor as required by the law.

“But one cannot, it is unacceptable in a multi-ethnic society for a political party to be so highly irresponsible, to be dredging this up all the time about ethnicity. Every Guyanese regardless of their ethnicity have a right to live a better life, a right to housing, a right to water,” the minister said.

She reminded that it was the APNU+AFC cabinet that got into hot water for approving a contract for the new Demerara River Bridge without approval from NPTAB.

Also, big contractors who were aligned with the opposition were hogging up not only billion-dollar projects but small contracts as well.

Now, there is currently over 1,000 small new contractors in Guyana who are doing projects for the government.

“All the parapets being done; the small work being done in communities. It’s not been given to contractors outside but using and developing skills of those in the communities,” Minister Teixeira added.

However, A report last week from the National Procurement and Tender Administration says, “there is clear evidence of ethnic discrimination in the award of tenders in Guyana. 

The National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTA) lists on its website Guyana’s annual tender awards and an analysis of these awards has provided a clear pattern of discrimination.”

“Companies owned or operated by Guyanese of Indian descent are awarded contracts at a rate far exceeding their representation in the broader demographic statistics of the country. Additionally, this pattern is even more evident when the dollar value of the contracts is considered.”

The National Procurement and Tender Administration’s website listed 288 awards for the year 2022, where ownership or management of tender awardees could be determined, were examined. The ethnicity of owners or managers of businesses for these awards was first determined, as well as whether they are local or foreign businesses, and then an analysis was conducted.

The Key points of the analysis are:

1. 56.9% of contracts awarded were to businesses owned or operated by Guyanese of Indian descent

2. 72.8% of the total dollar value of awards went to businesses owned or operated by Guyanese of Indian descent

3. 10.4% of contracts awarded were to businesses owned or operated by Guyanese of African descent

4. 7.1% of the total dollar value of awards went to businesses owned or operated by Guyanese of African descent

5. Contracts were awarded 5 times as often to contractors of Indian descent as those of African Descent.

6. The dollar value of contracts awarded to Guyanese firms with Indian descent ownership or management was 10 times greater than that awarded to firms owned or managed by Guyanese of African descent.

7. According to the 2012 census, Guyanese of Indian descent represent 39.8% of the population and Guyanese of African descent 29.3%.

8. It is interesting to note that the value of tenders awarded to foreign companies exceeds that rewarded to Guyanese of African descent.

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