By Patrick Denny
The mystery over the award of a contract to update the Laws of Guyana deepened yesterday with the Ministry of Legal Affairs lobbing the ball back into the court of the Office of the President.
Stabroek News
June 21, 2001
Ganga Persaud, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Legal Affairs yesterday asserted that his ministry had not breached the instructions it received from Cabinet.
Speaking at a press conference at his ministry's Carmichael Street office, Persaud said Cabinet's instructions did not require the ministry to obtain a "no-objection statement" and did not mention that the contract was to be funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
"The Cabinet decision clearly stated that the contract for US$222,500 (G$42.8 million) was awarded to the New Global Consults Inc." He said the Cabinet decision was not accompanied by an explanatory memorandum nor was there any indication that it was a provisional decision to be confirmed once certain conditions were satisfied.
Persaud said that he was moved to break the ministry's silence on the issue because he said that reports so far about the contract tended to portray the wrong image of the ministry. His version of events differed from that contained in an Office of the President (OP) statement on Tuesday.
The OP statement said that money from the Treasury was committed to the project without the knowledge of Cabinet.
It added that Cabinet had instructed that a no-objection statement should have been solicited from the IDB from which funding should have been obtained.
Persaud said that the contract signed on March 15 with New Global Consults Inc was drawn up and executed on the basis of two documents at the ministry's disposal.
One document, he said, was the Cabinet decision dated February 13, 2001 which gave permission for the contract to be awarded, which he said had been seen by then Attorney General Charles Ramson and who would have been acquainted with the decision as well as the voluntary restriction on the signing of contracts which was in effect from January 18. The Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, told Stabroek News that contracts with international financial institutions were not included in the voluntary restrictions. In the end, money for this contract did not come from an international financial institution.
The second document was a memo from the chairman of the Central Tender Board (CTB) giving approval for the direct sourcing of the contract. Questions have been raised locally over why direct souring was the preferred method for selecting a company and why the contract had not been advertised locally to give entities here a chance to bid for it.
The Cabinet decision, according to Persaud, was based on a memo submitted by then Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for finance, Saisnarine Kowlessar, seeking approval for the contract and for direct sourcing. Persaud said that he only saw this document about a week ago after queries had been raised in the media.
Stabroek News was unable to contact Kowlessar - now Finance Minister - for a comment as his secretary said that he was at a meeting. She said that he would return the call after being told why Stabroek News wanted to contact him. Up to press time he had not returned the call.
Persaud said that in retrospect checking the Cabinet memorandum on which the Cabinet decision was taken was a possible action he should have taken. However, he referred to the memorandum from the CTB dated a week after the Cabinet decision which approved the sole-sourcing of the contract.
Persaud said that he would have been more concerned if the payment was being made out of his ministry's vote. However, a Ministry of Finance official told Stabroek News that as the Accounting Officer in the ministry, Persaud should have ascertained the source of funding and the contents of the Cabinet memorandum to ensure that the conditions stated in it were satisfied.
Persaud said that the suggestion for direct sourcing was made by his ministry and followed discussions with the then Attorney General and officials at his ministry and the Ministry of Finance.
He explained that a review of the laws had been completed since 1997 through a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project and it was necessary to have the project completed ahead of the constitution revision exercise.
On how New Global Consults was identified, Persaud said that it was one of the firms which had expressed an interest in the printing of the Laws of Guyana. It was selected because, he said, the other contenders wanted to be granted copyright for printing the laws at a nominal fee and the ministry had been advised against this.
The ministry considered the printing of the laws, the recording of them on CDs and the establishment of the website as one project, Persaud disclosed. He conceded that no thought was given to the possibility of a local company having the capability to undertake the project.
He said that New Global Consults, whose officials include Sunny Singh, Rajendra Singh, Edun Warsalie (who signed the contract), Trevor Rupnarain and Kawall Totaram (all Guyanese resident in the US), had initially indicated a price of US$1 million but during the negotiations had agreed to US$222,500 - printing of the laws US$65,000 ($12M); provision of binders US$110,000 ($20.9M); 300 CDs US$40,000 ($7.6M); transportation US$7,500 (G$1.4M).
The establishment of the website is to be dealt with by the Office of the President. He said that payment was to be effected by letter of credit upon satisfactory completion of the project.
The completion date, he said, is the end of July (not June as first reported) and the volumes would be assembled at his ministry as required.
Persaud said that the contract was drafted by Ben Carter, a consultant who would normally advise the ministry on matters related to the IDB and vetted by the law officers in the ministry. It was finalised after discussions between the Attorney General and Warsalie and Sunny Singh.
He explained that Carter who is attached to the Ministry of Agriculture is not a lawyer but normally helps the ministry in the drafting of contracts for projects.
Persaud said that while not ascertaining that the company had a printery, the ministry was provided with a sample of the work. That sample was presented to Simone Morris the best graduating Guyanese student from the Hugh Wooding Law School last year.
No check was made to see if New Global Consults Inc operated a printery but Persaud said that the ministry was satisfied that it was capable of undertaking the project.
The OP statement on Tuesday had said that Cabinet's instructions had been flouted and that an investigation into the matter should soon be concluded.
It came following reports in Stabroek News on the award of the contract after its announcement by Dr Luncheon at a press conference.