A National Procurement and Tender Administration, which will be managed by a national board, will be set up after the Procurement Bill 2002 is passed into law.
Finance Minister, Saisnarine Kowlessar, tabled the long awaited bill yesterday at the 26th sitting of the National Assembly. The bill seeks to introduce new and comprehensive legislation to regulate the purchase of goods, services and construction and, if passed into law, will pay heed to competition among suppliers and attempt to promote fairness and transparency in public procurement.
The national board that will manage it will have the power to make regulations with the approval of the minister.
Tender board procedures have for many years come in for sharp criticism and reform measures have been under discussion for a long time.
To be established too are regional and district boards, which may be created by the national board, and departmental boards that may be established by a ministry or a government department. According to provisions of the bill, "there are also the ministerial boards created by the ministries [and while] the national board has the power to review decisions of the procuring entities, the regional boards shall oversee the administration of procurement in the administrative regions."
The national board, which manages the administration, shall consist of several members, appointed by the President, from among persons "of unquestioned integrity [and] who have shown capacity in business, the professions, law, audit, finance and administration." The members of the national board to be appointed by the minister shall comprise five persons from the public service and two from the private sector. Of the lot, two will serve on a full-time basis and the others on a part-time basis.
But it will be the minister who will possess the mandate to appoint a chairman and one of the full-time members. "The term of membership on the board shall be two years and the appointment of members to the board shall be staggered by making the first appointment of two part-time members for one year only; members of the board shall receive such remuneration and allowances as may be determined by the minister; each member of the national board shall declare his assets to the Integrity Commission; four members, including the chairman, shall form a quorum; and the national board shall meet weekly and, taking into account the volume of its adjudication and evaluation, may meet at such other times as it may determine."
Among the things the national board shall be responsible for are:
* making regulations governing procurement;
* determining the form of documents for procurement;
* maintaining efficient records and quality assurance systems;
* reporting annually to the minister of finance on the effectiveness of the procurement processes, and recommending any amendment to this Act that may be necessary;
* reviewing decisions by the procuring entities;
* appointing a pool of evaluators for such period as it may determine.
According to the bill, regulations may be made prescribing the value of procurement limits which procuring entities shall observe and, also, for each procurement subject to its jurisdiction, the national board shall select and appoint, from a pool of evaluators, three individuals with appropriate expertise and experience, to serve as members of an Evaluation Committee.