OCG recommends removal of three contractors from Govt list

The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has recommended that three contractors for government work be removed from the list of approved contractors after finding evidence that they may have used fraud to obtain contracts.

The recommendation comes as the OCG says it is succeeding in rooting out irregularities, fraud and corruption in the Government's contract award process.

The OCG never named the three entities but said they should be barred from getting government contracts after "compelling evidence of fraud, forged documentation, and/or misrepresentations regarding their professional staff, financial resources and/or project experience" was found in their application for government work.

But despite the fraud, the three contractors were found to receive government work valuing $375 million in the last few years.

The largest received contracts exceeding $222 million from September 2006 to February 2010.          

Another had contracts valuing $44 million from May 2008 to December 2009 while the third contractor was offered contracts to the tune of $109 million from December 2007 to January 2010.

However, most of the contracts given to the three never needed endorsements from the National Contracts Commission (NCC) because the value of the contracts awarded were below the $10 million threshold for it to go to the NCC.

About $214 million of the $375 million in contracts were awarded in this way.

The OCG said all three Contractor entities are directly linked to individuals who are before the courts for serious criminal charges.

But those contracts aside, the OCG says it has made stride in rooting out corrupt practices in the winning of government contracts.

The OCG says it has seen greater due diligence as only two of 109 contractors evaluated since September last year, showed evidence of fraud.

That is down from 52 out of 178 for the previous 14 months to the end of August 2010 which were pulled from the system to be investigated for fraud.

Additionally, the OCG said from July 2009 to August 2010, 62 applications for government contracts were returned because of their failure to meet the NCC’s requirements.

Only 20 of those have since re-applied for re-registration.

And for the OCG that raises the questions, particularly why the other 42 applicants have failed to pursue the applications.

It was however pointed out that with the more rigorous assessment; those who previously corrupted the system are shying away from making applications.