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Procurement commission explains variance in employment costs between 2023 and 2022
Kaieteur News- The Public Procurement Commission (PPC) has clarified the large increase in employment costs from 2022 to 2023 as highlighted in the recently tabled Audit of the Financial Statements in the National Assembly.
On December 4, this newspaper reported that the Commission in 2023 paid just over $175.7M in employment costs, a $115M increase from the previous year. The employment costs in 2022 amounted to just over $60M.
In a statement to the media on Wednesday in response to the article, the PPC noted that while it welcomes the level of scrutiny it is usually subjected to by the media, the report on the employment costs of the PPC was grossly misrepresented. The Commission pointed out that the PPC was first constituted by former President David Granger on October 28, 2016, for a period of three years, pursuant to Article 212Y of the constitution.
Procurement commission explains variance in employment costs between 2023 and 2022
“The tenures of the then Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson were extended by President David Granger (as he then was) for a period of one (1) year with effect from October 25th, 2019. No other commissioners were appointed, leaving the Commission not fully constituted and/or quorate,” the body explained.
The Commission was fully constituted by President Irfaan Ali for a period of three years, with effect from July 8, 2022; this board is still in place. The PPC said the contracts for its employees had expired by the time the next Commission was constituted in July, 2022. As a result, the Commission had to set about on a recruitment drive in 2022, to re-staff its constitutionally mandated Secretariat.
To this end, the body said, “It would be improper to compare the employment costs of 2023 with previous year 2022, when the Commission was in effect unstaffed. Further, the PPC said the current Commission had used the opportunity to review the organisational structure of the secretariat as reported in the aforementioned Annual Report; removing padded administrative positions and replacing same with technical staff.”
Under the previously constituted PPC, the final year they operated with a fully staffed Secretariat before employees’ contracts expired, was 2019.
As such, the Public Procurement Commission said it would be more prudent to compare the employment cost of the PPC in 2023, with the year 2019. “To this end, in 2019, the total employment cost of the PPC was $163.2 million, which increased by $27.7 million or 20% over the previous year in 2018. In 2023, the employment cost of $175.8 million represents an increase of $12.5 million or 7% to the last duly constituted PPC’s employment cost in 2019,” the Commission clarified. It therefore pointed out that the real increase in employment costs of the current PPC for the year ended 2023, when compared to the previously constituted PPC in 2019, was $12.5 million or only 7%.
(Procurement commission explains variance in employment costs between 2023 and 2022)
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Pic: PPC
Tags: PPC, employment, cost, variance, increase, explain
Key focus: Public Procurement Commission explains variance in employment costs between 2023 and 2022
Intro: The Public Procurement Commission (PPC) has clarified the large increase in employment costs from 2022 to 2023 as highlighted in the recently tabled Audit of the Financial Statements in the National Assembly.
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