BID rigging, according to Wikipedia, is: a form of fraud in which a commercial contract is promised to one party even though for the sake of appearance several other parties also present a bid.

With the advent of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement and the establishment of a more watchful contractor general, those who depend on public funds to unjustly enrich themselves must become far more creative so that their submissions will be picked and the necessary payments can be made to the politicians or public servants.

In the past, tenders and payments did not have to endure the scrutiny and pesky transparency, but now you have to learn the rules very well if you must be a successful thief. Yes, that’s correct, ‘thief’. Who are we stealing from? The taxpayers!

If an entity that is supported by tax dollars pays one dollar more for goods and services than it should or could, then in my opinion it is a fraud upon the Jamaican taxpayers or the taxpayers of the requisite funding agencies.

When trying to rig bids one has to start with a tender design; then put in the tender conditions that first limit the players. Second, include in the requirements conditions that can only be filled by a few contractors. State, for example, that it is only open to NCC Category 1 firms or maybe Categories 1 & 2, at the most: this will give you a small number of companies to work with.

Then stipulate that the product must be able to be delivered within 30 days. These are not usually off-the-shelf items and so there will be a significant manufacturer lead time. Once the accomplice has this information before the other bidders, an unfair advantage is now created and the bid process is rendered useless.

The agency will be able to use unacceptable delivery times to exclude the other contractors and give the contract to the accomplice. Everyone laughing at the OCG.

So, Mr Contractor General, open your eyes. Any request that a major item that’s not ordinarily stocked should be provided within 40 days is an unreasonable requirement. Saying that it’s their right to so structure the tender is to make a mockery of the process.

Another cute one is to lump goods and services into lots that can be provided by one set of firms together with those that can only be supplied by a few firms and make it a requirement that bids can only be made on all the lots, that they cannot be separated. It’s like marrying goods. Maybe what the Office of the Contractor General needs is more engineers and fewer lawyers.

Poor Contractor General, when he investigates he will be told it is for the sake of efficiency. Political debts have to be paid and wherever the money is it will have to be ferreted out.

The present Administration has done nothing to stimulate growth in the Jamaican economy. We are on our own. The only thing that has been achieved so far is an IMF agreement. We were told a lot of work was done and was necessary to get the best IMF agreement for Jamaica. Even if we believe that for one second, we must ask what else has been done. Economic growth will not come from that alone or simply saying we are on a “growth path” or “we are serious about growth”.

Stop lying to people about Goat Island dreams. We need policies that will grow the present economy. Like tax cuts, shorter approval times, lower interest rates for business loans, lower tax rates for new business. We can’t just sit here waiting for divine intervention.