Hurdles almost cleared…Procurement Commission readies to start work before month-end

Jan 07, 2017 News

Less than three months after members were sworn-in, the long-awaited Public Procurement Commission (PPC) seems set to begin its work.
The hold-up was the hiring of key personnel to man the secretariat. This was disclosed

File photo: Members of the Public Procurement Commission with President David Granger: – (from left) Carol Corbin, Sukrishnalall Pasha, Ivor English, Dr. Nanda Gopaul and Emily Dodson.

by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Harmon, who also performs the duties of Cabinet Secretary, made the statements in response to questions why Cabinet was still granting its “no-objections” to state contracts.
According to Harmon, the Commission is not fully ready, because there are some critical appointments to be made. These hurdles are expected to be cleared and the entity likely to start work before month-end, the minister said.
After then, the role of Cabinet in green-lighting state contracts over $15M will reside with the PPC.
In late October, after years of wrangling, President David Granger oversaw the swearing in of five members of the Commission.
Among other things, the commission will handle complaints from peeved contractors.
There have been numerous complaints over the years of interference by state officials into contract awards, with deep suspicions that even the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) was infected and was more of a rubber stamp.
In 2015, the Granger administration, on entering office, immediately moved to install new NPTAB members, amidst calls for an overhaul in the procurement system to ensure transparency and accountability.
Sworn in as members of the PPC were Emily Dodson, a lawyer by profession; Carol Corbin, wife of former Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin; Dr. Nanda Gopaul, a trade unionist and former Labour Minister under the previous administration; University of Guyana lecturer, Sukrishnalall Pasha, and Ivor English, former head of the Maritime Administration and an official of the Critchlow Labour College. Corbin is the Chairperson of the Commission.
The body was supposed to be established over 14 years ago, but was delayed time and again after differences between the Opposition and consecutive administrations of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic on the members and law changes.
Granger, at the time of the swearing-in, stressed that the commission’s purpose is to ensure that the procurement of goods and services and execution of works are conducted in a fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost effective manner, according to law, and such policy guidelines as may be determined by the National Assembly.

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