Gov’t approves committee to hear public procurement complaints

Jun 18, 2016 News

A special body that will hear complaints of breaches in the state’s tendering process is being

Minister Joseph Harmon

established, Government announced yesterday.
The three-man body had been one of the requirements laid out in the public procurement regulations, explained Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, yesterday.
The approval for a Bid Protest Committee will come at a time when there have been delays for more than a decade and half now for the establishment of and appointment of members to the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), which is in limbo at Parliament.
There have been growing complaints of wrongdoings in the awards of contracts with little recourse for aggrieved bidders.
According to Minister Harmon, there have been concerns about the transparency of public contracts and the delayed Public Procurement Commission.
This week, the Cabinet of Ministers received recommendations from Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, for the appointment of a Bid Protest Committee.
“This Bid Protest Committee is one of the requirements laid out in the regulations for public procurement,” Harmon told reporters at the post-Cabinet press briefings yesterday.
He said that the protest committee will deal with “alleged breaches of the Public Procurement Act by procuring entities”.
The committee will comprise three persons with a nominee of the Attorney General Chambers to be the Chairperson.
The other members are Archibald Clifton, a former senior manager of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT); Ewart Adams, an insurance official, and Colin Saul, a security company official.
Meanwhile, the PPC, when established, will monitor how state agencies, ministries, and regional councils procure goods and services and ensure that the process are conducted in a fair and transparent manner.
The PPC was supposed to investigate complaints and irregularities and initiate investigations.
The five-member PPC was supposed to be nominated by the Public Accounts Committee and supported by two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly.
A March deadline had been announced by Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Irfaan Ali, for the establishment of Public Procurement Commission.
During his budget presentation earlier this year, Finance Minister Winston Jordan said that the Government is seeking to fast-track the process for establishing the Public Procurement Commission, which will be pro-active in enacting a Code of Conduct for Ministers of Government and Parliamentarians.

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