Sean Douglas
THE High Minister has said the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act 2015 does truly allow instances of a non-competitive gentle awards in some conditions.
Dr Rowley spoke within the House of Representatives on September 20 in respond to a ask posed below High Minister’s Questions.
Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo requested if the Authorities supposed to insist public bodies (ministries, statutory authorities and teach enterprises) to employ the competitive tendering award task quite than a single sole gentle task, which he said appears to be frequent, as said within the first annual voice of the Procurement Regulator.
Rowley replied, “The operative be aware there is ‘appears.’
“The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act affords very certain provisions for single sole pick tendering in very state instances.
“The Authorities expects that every ministry, statutory authority and teach enterprise will abide by the provisions of the law.”
The principle Annual Picture to Parliament (2023-2024) of the Place of work of Procurement Regulation (OPR) used to be laid within the House of Representatives on September 9.
It said within the past year some $5 billion in public contracts used to be no longer awarded by entirely competitive gentle/procurement suggestions.
It listed the non-competitive awards. In Q3 2023 this used to be 51 per cent of awards made and totalled $0.58 billion. In Q4 2023 it used to be 78 per cent of awards and used to be worth $1.forty eight billion. For Q1 2024, it used to be 70 per cent, to a label of $0.9 billion. By Q2 2024, it used to be a whopping 87 per cent, valued at $1.9 billion.
While the voice said the act advocated “fairness, fairness, and worth for cash,” the OPR lamented “an improper employ of runt and non-competitive procurement suggestions.”
It said, “Single and sole-source suggestions had been continuously feeble, indicating a stage of resistance to the usage of initiate bidding suggestions by public bodies.”
Alternatively, the voice additionally notorious insufficient infrastructure plus technological, human and monetary sources in public bodies to toughen the act.
The act states, “A procuring entity could well restrict participation in procurement court cases to promote local industry construction and native protest.”
On this topic, the High Minister earlier justified the assortment of Gillian Bishop, as an famed and skilled local jewellery fashion designer, because the Authorities’s different of an artist to revamp the national coat of palms, to interchange the three ships of explorer Christopher Columbus with a steelpan.
