AG prepared to call in police over GECOM radio purchase

The Auditor General Deodat Sharma said he is prepared to exercise his powers to turn to the police to further probe the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) controversial purchase of 50 radios sets for the 2015 general elections.

Sharma made the commitment when he was speaking the media operatives on the sideline of an event at parliament on Friday.

When asked if he will utilise his authority to take the matter to the police, Sharma responded in the affirmative.

“If we don’t get action with the Commission sending it then yes we will …,” he stated.

The special audit report into the matter was handed over to GECOM Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield on Monday.

The radio sets were purchased at an approximate cost of $99.5M from a company called Mobile Authority even though another firm had submitted a more responsive bid.

Additionally, reports indicate that less than 30% of the equipment were utilised during the elections.

In fact, to date, only 44 of the 50 radio sets purchased were used by GEOCM during the elections.

Reports also revealed that six of the radio sets which were valued at $11.9M were inoperable as at September 2016.

It was also found that GECOM did not utilise the process of public tendering for the purchase of the equipment on the basis of time constraints.