Hardware dealers have charged that the National Commission for Self Help owes them hundreds of thousands of dollars and are calling for a committee to be established to deal with the backlog of payments. Commission CEO Reynold Baldeosingh admitted it was in arrears and attributed it to questionable practices in the commission before the 2010 general election.
He assured dealers that all outstanding balances would be settled but said an adequate accounting and database system must be first established and dealers must present all necessary documents. More than 100 hardware suppliers attended a consultation with the commission at the Preysal Community Centre, Couva, to inquire when outstanding payments would be issued.
The dialogue comes after Local Government Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan said the commission would crack down on hardware dealers who had been taking advantage of beneficiaries of home-repair grants. Speaking at a grant-distribution ceremony in San Fernando last month, Rambachan said the commission had uncovered several instances in which dealers had marked up their prices to swindle grant recipients.
However, dealers said they continued to supply recipients of the commission's grants, despite not receiving payments. One Port-of-Spain supplier, who declined to identify herself or her company, said despite their continued service to the commission, they were still owed for 25 per cent of supplies given to recipients.
Chabindranand Seepersad, of Seepersad's Hardware, Marabella, said the commission owed him for goods given out in 2010. He said when he inquired he was told his claims were misplaced. Baldeosingh later explained that the lengthy waiting period had occurred because before the 2010 general election, grants were issued without proper approval.
He said such discrepancies occurred before his board was appointed in 2010. Now, he said, applications must go through an approval process and grants were issued depending on the availability of funds. "I was not here at that time, neither the board of directors. People got grants with no approval. To spend the state money, you must have a tenders meeting and there were instances where people were given grants with no approval," he added.
He said the commission had begun to establish new accounting and database procedures to ensure a proper approval process and that all files were properly drafted. He said in the past it not only were files lost but in some instances they were not created. In Seepersad's case, Baldeosingh said the commission had been looking at 2010 invoices.
He added: "So we have started to correct those but in order to pay, we must still take it through an approval process and inform the tenders committee, the board of directors, sometimes the permanent secretary, to pay for things that the hardware dealer has invoiced us for. We now have a way to look at that on our records." Baldeosingh also said the waiting period for payments to suppliers had been reduced by five weeks.
"From this morning, we have stated that our payment cycle has been reduced to two months. From the time they issue the goods to the time they get payment, no more than two months should pass," Baldeosingh. In the past, he said, the commission would send a representative to the hardware to verify the purchase and ensure an invoice was obtained.
Now, he said, the process had changed and the commission would contact applicants to verify when they visited the hardware and when supplies were received. Another change, he said, was to prohibit suppliers from making changes to applicants' purchase orders or exchange of goods.
