Coalition Govt. we overpaid $ 8M for a fence
Kaieteur News – The 2019 Auditor General’s report (AG) highlighted that under the former coalition government, the Ministry of Social Protection has overpaid an contractor $ 8.330 million for work under a fence contract.
The contract for the construction of a fence at the New Opportunity Corp., Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast, in the amount of $ 69.536M by the National Procurement and Tender Board Administration in 2018, was awarded to the lowest respondent of twenty-eight bidders.
This is the second time an overpayment has been reported in a PE report, it was first identified in the 2018 report and stated that as of 31 December 2018, the sum of $ 69.216M had been paid to the contractor and the works had been since then. However, based on a physical check conducted by the Audit Office on August 11, 2019, where measurements and calculations were taken, the contractor was found to have overpaid the $ 8.330 million.
A table in the report stated that the contractor had been tasked with supplying and installing a pressurizer run to the surface of the facility’s access road but physical inspections revealed that no press run was ever supplied. For that set of works under the contract the contractor was overpaid.
The Audit Office had recommended that the Head of the Budget Agency recover the overpayment and reconcile the final payment for work carried out; ensure that the finished work is accurately measured and quantified before making payments to contractors.
But up to the final reports last year, the overpayment had not been collected.
In the 2019 report, in the Ministry’s response to the overpayments, it was stated that they were currently pursuing the matter. The audit office has again recommended that the Ministry should make every effort to recover the overpayments and also put in place proper systems to avoid future recurrences.
Other findings also revealed that the engineer estimated the project to be $ 81.614M, which is over cost. Further, it was stated that the advertising details including the date the contract was signed, the start date, the completion date and the defect liability period could not be determined from the documents submitted for audit.
However, the Ministry responded with the relevant information saying, ‘in accordance with Form 3: Contract agreement and page 34: special conditions of contracts (SCC) the contract was signed: 13 August 2018, Start Date: seven days after signing’ r contract (20 August 2018), contract duration: six months (19 February 2019), defect liability Duration: six months (20 August 2019) and that variation order was made for Item 2.3 of the Quantity Bill. ”