GCCI voices disapproval over contract bundling in Guyana’s petroleum sector
The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI) on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with the contract bundling practices within Guyana’s petroleum sector.
Contract bundling is the consolidation of the procurement of various goods and services under one contract, and GCCI said that this has “seemingly become a practice of companies within the petroleum sector.”
“Contracts are being solicited for expression of interest (EOI) and requests for information (RFI) under one umbrella by various players in the industry. The sum-effect of this practice is that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are unable to compete in the space since the ‘bundling’ practice will set an artificial barrier to their participation,” the GCCI said.
Apart from the hindrance to MSMEs wishing to service the sector, the GCCI said that contract bundling defeats Guyana’s Local Content Act as well as the private sector development.
“The Chamber calls on the Local Content Secretariat of the Ministry of Natural Resources to examine this practice and its harmful effects on the full utilisation of the Local Content Act and, by extension, private sector development in Guyana,” the statement concluded.
Over the last few weeks, several players within the oil and gas sector published Expressions of Interest (EOI) for several services under one contract.
