At least one contractor is facing blacklisting by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) over last month’s collapse of utility poles along the Aubrey Barker Road in South Ruimveldt, Georgetown.
This is according to Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, who said others are also likely to face disciplinary action.
Back in December, some nine concrete poles were uprooted by road construction works along the Aubrey Barker Road, plunging some 2000 households in South Ruimveldt, Georgetown into more than 18 hours of power outage.

An investigation was subsequently launched by the Public Works Ministry and the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) into the incident, which was heavily criticised.
During his press conference earlier today, Jagdeo disclosed that the probe is completed.
“The report has been concluded, a joint report by Public Works and GPL, and there’s a recommendation to the Tender Board to blacklist one contractor. The investigation is continuing, so there’ll be further disciplinary action taken against other individuals.”
Jagdeo had previously cautioned that there would be consequences since initial investigations had revealed that the concrete poles were not laid according to specifications.
Today, he sounded a warning for state officials who neglect their duties and allow these kinds of shoddy works.
“We need to take firm action against these individuals. There are some people at the engineering level [and] at the procurement level… We’ve found some cases where procurement officers in some agencies are doing some of the most egregious things.”
The Vice President went on to urge those with information about corrupt public officers to report them.
“We’ve made it clear to people [especially] contractors that if any engineer, any procurement officer of the state were to solicit a bribe from you, or to say they can give you a contract if you give them any money, or accept shoddy work if you pay them, then just let us know. You can send in, even anonymously, the letter to us, and trust me, it will be investigated. We are looking at this seriously.”
“There are some individuals who were still, but it’s very it’s cleverly done, doing this. I’ve had two instances where people came to me and I’m investigating them now, where procurement officers are involved.”