Well-placed sources have informed Guyana Standard that the government has broken off relations with Method4 Engineering after being “bitten by its own.”
Information suggests that individuals associated with Guyana Power and Light (GPL) were involved in an incestuous scheme. Method4 Engineering had won a contract for a consultancy to oversee the new network distribution grid for the state-owned company. The official explanation given by GPL and the government was that the company lacked sufficient experience. Thus, the decision was taken not to sign the contract with the firm. The government has since decided to engage InterEnergy Systems, a Dominican Republic company.
Notably, Method4 was previously awarded work that fell under the GPL. “They had smaller contracts that did not attract this level of scrutiny,” the source said.
Guyana Standard understands that initial looks into what seemed like Method4’s questionable capacity, revealed much more troubling details.
After the US$7M contract was awarded, government agents at the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Public Works started to examine capacity. Something that should have been properly done at the level of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB). Agents noticed that a number of the “skilled” personnel, including the engineers attached to the firm, are Guyanese. Many of them are former GPL employees, some of whom have migrated to Canada.
That discovery led to another, Method4 is no Canadian company. The principal of the company is a Guyanese with a Canadian passport. Guyana Standard understands that there were concerns that the principal of Method4 is well known to persons in key positions at GPL. One or more of the GPL affiliates have connections to persons in Cabinet.
Records at the registry note Manoj Narayan as the lawyer who incorporated Method4 Engineering. Narayan is attached to Nandlall and Associates and sits as a Commissioner on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
Guyana Standard understands that this information reached the ears of top Cabinet members who then decided, after considering the lack of new skills and technology as well as the incestuous relations, that it is indefensible to continue the partnership with Method4.
Had the government gone ahead, the company, which has ties to personnel at GPL, would have been supervising GPL, instructing it on best practices for the project.
The Guyana Standard questioned one source about the secrecy.
The response was, “You can imagine this is not something they would want revealed so close to elections. If you examine the situation, it would appear as if the government saved the day. Because they could have been paying hefty sums to a company with limited to no capacity, they bring nothing new to the table.
“Then there is a conflict of common parties. But people may still focus on the fact that one of theirs is at the center of it, and there is the obvious breakdown at the level of the (tender board).”
