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Over Procurement of bank switch at the PFMU, Ministry of Finance, the scorpion squad of the Anti-Corruption Commission is reportedly gearing up to take spring on the perpetrators.
In the last publication dated September 26, 2021 of the Standard Times Press, this medium brought to the attention of its readers how the PFMU complicated the World Bank into fake endorsing of a well manipulated procurement process for the inter-bank switch.
Notwithstanding, all cooked bidding information that the PFMU fed the World Bank with, and getting the bank to believe that the process followed the rudiments of the banking procurement regulations 2020; the fact of the matter remains that the World Bank can only rely on the International Management System of the Project Fiduciary Management Unit (PFMU). This means the World Bank can only approve and/or act on the information presented to them at the time of bid. This information based in evidence reported by this medium and the audit reports remain questionable and lack of proof to substantiate the overall outcome of the bid and the integrity of the overall process.
Hence, claims of a World Bank endorsement published by a local tabloid means nothing to guarantee transparency and accountability of the bidding process to ensure fairness to all competing bidders. The statement published by the bank is no guarantee that the process was clean through and through and is therefore no justification that the process wasn’t manipulated by the PFMU.
Evidence leaked to this press point to a well-coordinated syndicate by a few people led by Mr. Alpha Sissay of PFMU that cooked data and presented the same as clean to the World Bank for its approval. Hence the presentation of this action as an endorsement of procurement fraud, and while others could see this as conspiracy to commit a fraud, and pundits are wondering whether the public should wait for the bank’s reaction to get them exonerated from this messy situation is unclear.
Playing the devil’s advocate, this press will make a case of conspiracy against the World Bank once the so-called leaked Memo remains in someone’s archive and will not back down on publishing the numerous pieces of evidence at hand to stand by our position of fraud.
So far evidence produced thus far on this matter remains unchallenged for a record more than 30days standing and with no substantiate defence from the PFMU.
However, let’s go back to his history over the procurement process carried out by the PFMU and more importantly using the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) now being rolled out by the National Revenue Authority. ITAS procurement process was carried out by the PFMU with support from the World Bank that sponsored two different International Procurement Specialists to superintend the process. The ITAS bidding process was carried out and cancelled twice because of very serious procurement malpractices reported, and according to the World Bank the process didn’t measure up with the standard of procurement bench-marks for international standards. In essence, the World Bank hired at different times International Procurement Consultant that messed up the ITAS biddings. The two different ITAS International Procumbent Specialists were hired for an average fee of USD 150K each just to ensure they meet value for money. The overall, ITAS was evaluated three (3) times to be able to make a fair and justifiable decision that met value for money.
With this analogy, readers are not stupid to believe on what is being put out there to cover the fraudulent tracks of the PFMU. The PFMU cannot use International Procumbent Specialists under whose watchful eye a bidding process similar to this bank switch was cancelled twice and hence must focus on the issue that brought about the allegation of procurement fraud, summarised into two categories as: (i) the lack of evidence of JV between the disqualified parties in the bid and (ii) the issue of price difference from USD 2.7M to USD 3.9M announced without prior communication to all bidders.
