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Govt. to resubmit nominees for Public Procurement Commission soon
The usual differences of opinion between the government and the People’s National Congress Reform is what led to the delay in the resubmission of the administration’s nominees for the Public Procurement Commission.
President Bharrat Jagdeo
At a press conference on Friday last, President Bharrat Jagdeo, said that some years ago, three nominees were submitted but there was a huge debate on the candidates and as such the process was paused.
“I expect very soon that would happen, but we had submitted three nominees and there was a huge debate and it didn’t go very far and now we have to resubmit.”
This scenario is similar to the case with the local government elections, where the two parties cannot move forward.
Just under a week ago, Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, Volda Lawrence, told another section of the media that the delay in submission of the names is holding up the deliberation.
The list of members of this constitutional commission was supposed to be completed since last July.
Lawrence had said that the PNCR and the Alliance For Change have already submitted their nominees to the body.
After all the nominees are submitted, the committee will use a grading method to select the most qualified for appointment to the commission.
Only five persons will be on the commission.
But according to Lawrence, the administration is attempting to bypass the Constitution to ensure it has a majority on the commission.
The role of this commission includes the monitoring and reviewing of all public procurement systems. It also monitors the performance of procurement bodies. In such cases, the adherence to regulations in procuring services and the execution of works are examined.
It also has responsibility over the procedures of ministerial, regional and national procurement entities as well as those of project execution units.
The commission also has the task of investigating complaints from contractors and public enterprises along with suppliers and cases of irregularities. It has the authority to propose remedial action in all instances.
The Constitution stipulates that the commission should be independent, impartial and should discharge its functions fairly.
In January to April 2007, the Ethnic Relations Commission conducted research into the public procurement activity in Guyana over the four-month period. A summary of the findings from that report, states that the commission be established in order that its functions can be removed from the ambit of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.
It also suggested that the mode of creation and manner of oversight of the Tender Board is qualitatively different from those constitutionally provided for the Public Procurement Commission. The provisions in the Procurement Act regarding a declaration of interest, the report stated, appears to omit requirement of a written statement signed by the declarant.
The ERC proposed that this omission be addressed with a view to enhancing the objective of the Act.
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