Attorney General Anil Nandlall has announced a sweeping review of Guyana’s public procurement processes, the Procurement Act, and the standard form contracts currently used in the public sector, citing growing concerns about contractor non-compliance, cost variations, and the conduct of engineers and supervisors tasked with monitoring state contracts.
Speaking during his weekly “Issues In the News” programme on Tuesday night, Nandlall said the review is aimed at providing the Government with greater legal protection when contractors fail to meet their contractual obligations.
A central focus of the review will be the troubling pattern of engineers and supervisors appearing to side with contractors rather than the state that employs them — particularly when it comes to supporting requests for contract variations that drive up costs.
“Instead of preventing and resisting attempts at variations in contracts that would inevitably result in an upward movement in the contract price, the engineer and/or supervisors support the contractor’s request for an extension,” Nandlall said, adding that he suspects financial incentives may be at play, since engineers’ and supervisors’ remuneration packages are often tied to the very variations they are supposed to resist.
“When the variation is granted, the supervisor, contractor or the engineer’s contract is also extended. So they receive remuneration that is commensurate with the extension of the contract — that must be looked at,” the Attorney General noted.
Nandlall said contractors currently appear to be rewarded rather than penalised for variations, a situation he described as unacceptable. He stressed that the responsibility of engineers and supervisors is to police contracts on behalf of the state and ensure that breaches are reported and remedied — not supported.
As part of the review, the Government will strengthen the regime of remedies available when contractors breach their obligations, making contract provisions more stringent and holding contractors more accountable for non-compliance.
“We will review the regime of remedies that flow when there is a breach and we will strengthen the regime of remedies so as to offer to the state greater protection when there are breaches of non-compliance,” Nandlall stated.
The Attorney General also noted that the contracts currently in use by the state are outdated and must be revised to align with the International Federation of Consulting Engineers model contracts. He added that a recent Caribbean Court of Justice decision on contract law arising from the sale of the Tower Hotel has further underscored the need for a comprehensive review of the existing framework.
