> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # In 71 Guyana Tenders, One Winner Was Paid in US Dollars and the Other in Guyana Dollars. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-procurement-two-currencies-one-tender-us-dollar-awards-2026/ - Published: 2026-11-05T10:30:05.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-08T05:21:28.000Z - Description: Guyana's register of awarded tenders prices 410 contracts in US dollars, worth US$1.96 billion. On 71 contract references the state awarded lots in both currencies on the same day, paying one supplier in US dollars and another in Guyana dollars. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Guyana, Procurement, foreign exchange, public contracts, Compliance, Business, Beat: procurement-project-finance, MSME: direct **Quick summary:** Guyana's register of awarded tenders prices 410 contracts in US dollars, worth US$1.96 billion. On 71 contract references the state awarded lots in both currencies on the same day, paying one supplier in US dollars and another in Guyana dollars, and the US-dollar side of those tenders is worth about half the money. By LCN Business Desk On 24 September the Ministry of Agriculture's Sector Development Unit split one tender three ways. Gopie Investments Inc. was paid in United States dollars and Dax Contracting Services in Guyana dollars, for the same category of material, out of the same ten bids. ## How often does one tender pay in two currencies? On 71 of the 4,055 contract references that name a currency at all, covering 564 award rows. | Where it happens | Tenders | | -------------------------------------- | ------- | | Ministry of Health | 32 | | Ministry of Education | 11 | | Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation | 5 | | Guyana Sugar Corporation | 7 | | Ministry of Public Works | 3 | | Guyana National Bureau of Standards | 3 | | All others | 10 | *Contract references on the awarded-tenders register carrying both a US-dollar and a Guyana-dollar row, retrieved 4 November 2026\. Guyana Sugar Corporation is counted across the three spellings the register gives it.* Health and education are where the state buys equipment and supplies it cannot source at home, and those two account for three in five of the mixed tenders. The pattern is not spread across government; it sits where imported goods sit. ## Which supplier gets which currency? The importer is paid in US dollars and the local distributor in Guyana dollars, inside the same award. The clearest case is a single company. Western Scientific holds 165 rows on the register, 116 of them priced in US dollars and worth US$106,786,973\. Its buyers are the Ministry of Health on 91 rows, the Ministry of Education on 26, Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation on 12 and the Ministry of Agriculture on 10\. Five of its rows carry "(T&T)" or "(Trinidad)" after the name. Beside it in those same tenders sit New GPC, Meditron and BPI Guyana, all paid in Guyana dollars. The register does not state a rule, and no published document explains the split, but across the 71 tenders it tracks whether the supplier is bringing goods in or selling them on. ::: **The state buys the same category of goods from two suppliers on the same day and settles with one of them in a currency the other cannot get at the same price.** ::: ## How much money moves this way? US$192.6 million inside the mixed tenders, and US$1.96 billion across the register as a whole. Those 71 tenders carry US$192,580,182 on their US-dollar rows and G$40,566,237,908 on their Guyana-dollar rows. Converted at the official rate of G$208.5 to US$1, which the [Ministry of Finance mid-year report](https://finance.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Mid-Year-Report-2026.pdf?ref=lacaribenanews.com) recorded as unchanged at end-June 2026, the two sides are within a percentage point of each other. Half the money in a mixed tender leaves in foreign currency. Across the whole register the state has awarded 410 contracts priced in US dollars, worth US$1,963,722,603\. The largest are not health at all. Three lots of one Ministry of Public Works award went to Vishwa Samudra Engineering at US$257,055,406.60, US$213,000,000 and US$199,400,000 on 14 May 2024, and China Road and Bridge Corporation holds US$192,160,899 from November that year. ## Does the currency always follow the supplier? No, and the exception is this year's. On 24 September 2026 the Ministry of Agriculture Sector Development Unit awarded three lots of one tender for material for categories 2 and 3 works, against ten tenders received. Gopie Investments Inc. took two of them at US$425,600 and US$1,344,000\. Dax Contracting Services took the third at G$973,500,000\. Both names read as Guyanese, both bid into the same advertisement, and one is paid in a currency the other is not. Nothing published explains it. It is the only mixed-currency tender the register carries for a Guyanese agriculture buyer. ## Why does the currency on the award matter to a bidder? Because the two currencies have not been worth the same thing to a business this year. The official rate held at G$208.5 through the first half of 2026\. The market mid-rate in the same report runs 220.6 to 223.7, and non-bank cambios were selling at G$219 as far back as October 2024\. A supplier paid in Guyana dollars who must then buy US dollars to restock pays the market rate. A supplier paid in US dollars never makes that conversion. On a G$973,500,000 award the gap between those two rates is worth tens of millions of Guyana dollars, and it falls on whichever party holds the Guyana dollar. That is a term of trade, and it is settled in the award notice rather than in any negotiation a bidder sees in advance. It also puts the state on both sides of a market it is trying to manage. Guyana's banks have been [telling the President that requests for foreign currency outstrip what they can supply](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-remittance-outflows-banks-q1-2026-foreign-currency-2026/), while [Trinidad has been running a dedicated foreign exchange window of its own](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/trinidad-eximbank-555-million-fx-document-screening-guyana-parallel-2026/) and screening who draws on it. Public procurement is a demand on the same pool, and it is the one part of that demand the state sets itself. ## What is not established here? Why the split happens. No published document sets out when a Guyanese procuring entity may contract in US dollars, and the Board's own procurement guide does not address currency. Whether the US-dollar contracts are settled in foreign currency or converted at award, and at which rate. Whether Western Scientific, which the register names five times with "(T&T)" or "(Trinidad)" after it and 160 times without, is one company throughout. The register writes it fourteen ways. Whether the two firms in the agriculture tender are differently placed in any way the register does not show. Whether every currency cell is right. [The register's currency column carries its own errors](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-awarded-tenders-register-missing-road-award-record-quality-2026/), and the figures here rest on it. What supports them is scale: the US-dollar rows in these tenders run to a median of US$85,731 and the Guyana-dollar rows to G$8,660,000, a ratio of the same order as the exchange rate, which is what two real currencies look like and not what a mislabelled column looks like. ### The entities \- **National Procurement and Tender Administration Board** is the Guyanese body that publishes the awarded-tenders register this article measures. - **Western Scientific** is the supplier holding 165 rows on the register, 116 of them priced in US dollars, named five times with Trinidad and Tobago after it. - **New GPC** is a supplier paid in Guyana dollars inside the same Ministry of Health tenders. - **Ministry of Agriculture Sector Development Unit** is the buyer on contract 54/2026/21, the one mixed-currency agriculture tender. - **Gopie Investments Inc.** is the firm paid US$425,600 and US$1,344,000 on that tender. - **Dax Contracting Services** is the firm paid G$973,500,000 on the same tender. - **Vishwa Samudra Engineering** is the contractor holding the three largest US-dollar awards on the register, from the Ministry of Public Works. - **Ministry of Finance** is the publisher of the mid-year report recording the official rate at G$208.5 to US$1 at end-June 2026. ### What the title card says \- Headline: in 71 Guyana tenders, one winner was paid in US dollars and the other in Guyana dollars. - Contract references paying in both currencies: 71, covering 564 award rows. - Share of those tenders bought by health and education: 43 of 71\. - Value on the US-dollar side of them: US$192,580,182\. On the Guyana-dollar side: G$40,566,237,908\. - Contracts priced in US dollars across the whole register: 410, worth US$1,963,722,603\. - One supplier's US-dollar rows: 116, worth US$106,786,973\. - Official exchange rate at end-June 2026: G$208.5 to US$1\. Market mid-rate: 220.6 to 223.7\. - Source: the awarded-tenders register published by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, retrieved 4 November 2026, with the Ministry of Finance Mid-Year Report 2026. ## Frequently Asked Questions Does Guyana award public contracts in US dollars? Yes. The awarded-tenders register prices 410 contracts in US dollars, worth US$1,963,722,603\. The largest are Ministry of Public Works infrastructure awards, three of them to Vishwa Samudra Engineering on 14 May 2024 at US$257,055,406.60, US$213,000,000 and US$199,400,000. Can one tender be awarded in two currencies? It has happened on 71 contract references, covering 564 award rows. On those tenders the state awarded lots in both currencies, usually on the same day and under the same procurement method, paying one supplier in US dollars and another in Guyana dollars. Which ministries do this most? The Ministry of Health on 32 of the 71 and the Ministry of Education on 11, with Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation on five and Guyana Sugar Corporation on seven. The pattern sits with buyers of imported equipment and supplies. Why would the currency matter to a supplier? Because the official rate of G$208.5 to US$1 and the market mid-rate of 220.6 to 223.7 are not the same price. A supplier paid in Guyana dollars who must buy foreign currency to restock converts at the market rate, and a supplier paid in US dollars does not convert at all. Does the register explain the split? No. It records the currency and nothing else, and the Board's published procurement guide does not address when a contract may be priced in foreign currency.