A $2.6 billion contract that was awarded in July 2019 when the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government was in office, left the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) baffled during a recent sitting.
Among the items the contractor was supposed to supply, were 800 diplomatic passports.
During the PAC sitting, Office of the President (OP) Permanent Secretary Abena Moore could not shed light as to why the contractor was paid $325.6 million from this contract. Nor could she say which, if any, of the ten items the contractor was supposed to supply, were actually delivered to the Government.
“I sought to get some information from the person who was in charge of this project, but they’re no longer employed at the Ministry. And I would have asked if they could come to give more clarity but I did not get a response,” the PS of the Ministry at the time said.
“The officer that was dealing with the matter, she was more au fait with what was delivered and what wasn’t. So, I can engage her and I can see if we can get some answers to the questions Minister is asking,” Moore, who was also the PS in charge of the then Ministry of the Presidency during the time of the contract, said.
Even the documents surrounding this contract could not be provided. PAC Member and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira pointed out that the matter came down to the documents involving the project since the contractor would have been provided with a contract to supply the ten items. She noted that there ought to be documents verifying the delivery of these items.
It was pointed out by the Auditor General that his office was not given any supporting documents for four payment vouchers for cheques totalling $325.5 million, which were prepared but not paid. These monies, according to the Permanent Secretary, were returned to the Ministry of Finance.
However, the contractor was still paid $325.6 million in 2019. No one could say what the contractor was paid for and which parts of his contract he fulfilled, with the Auditor General promising to do some further checks. When it comes to the state of the contract, the Permanent Secretary explained that her office is no longer responsible for it.
“[Office of the President] is no longer handling the project. I will have to check with my colleague at the Ministry of Home Affairs, given the fact that the Department of Citizenship is now under the Ministry of Home Affairs, on the situation with the Canadian bank notes,” Moore said. She was given two weeks to supply the outstanding information.
Meanwhile PAC member David Patterson, who was the Public Infrastructure Minister under the previous APNU/AFC Government, sought to clear up some of the mystery surrounding the contract.
In defending the project, he said that the diplomatic passports were not being distributed “willy nilly” but rather, were supposed to have been delivered and stored over a six-year period to ensure there was no shortage.
Patterson claimed that $811 million was budgeted in the 2019 APNU/AFC budget, with the rest to have been budgeted in subsequent years, to pay for the contract. The remaining sum would have equated to US$3.7 million, with the total contract costing US$12.4 million or $2.6 billion.
“This contract is a six-year contract. NPTAB granted the approval because they went to American bank note, they went to a company in India, Chinese and then they went to a German company. The great number of passports were to be delivered in six-month batches.”
“The PS wrote and gave the schedule, that every six months. So, 800 diplomatic passports were over the six-year period. I don’t know how they needed them. But every six months, there was supposed to be a delivery. It was all written out in the contract,” Patterson said.
The items in question the contractor was supposed to deliver were a new Border Management System with 10 APC e-Kiosks, along with five years of maintenance and support; Border Management System Stand-by Site; New e-PICS with five years’ maintenance and support; E-PICS Warm Stand-by Site; Online Passport Application and Payment System; 398,000 Regular e-Passports (32 pages); 100,000 Regular e-Passports (48 pages); 800 Service e-Passports; 900 specimen e-Passports for on-site training, testing; and the 800 Diplomatic e-Passports.
With both PS Moore and the Auditor General committing to do some further checks for information and supporting documents on the project, it was agreed by the PAC that the matter would be revisited by July 4, 2023.
In his 2019 report, the Auditor General had found a number of breaches with the project. This includes a breach of Section 31 (2) of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act, which stipulates that “Each requisition for a payment of public moneys out of the Consolidated Fund shall be in such form, accompanied by such documents and certified in such manner as the Minister may by regulation prescribe.”
Section 31 (3) of the Act was also breached. This Section stipulates that “No requisition for the payment of public moneys shall be made in respect of any part of the Government unless the Head of the budget agency concerned or an official authorized in writing by that Head for the purpose certifies…. that the work has been performed, the goods supplied or the services provided, as the case may be, and that the price charged therefor is in accordance with the contract or other arrangement governing the work, good or services… ii. where, pursuant to a contract…a payment is to be made prior to the completion of the work, supply of the goods or provision of the services, as the case may be, that the payment is in accordance with the contract…”
