MPs not ready to debate Procurement Bill
-says opposition
Concerns about continued role of cabinet in procurement
Stabroek News
June 15, 2003
The Second Reading of the Procurement Bill 2003 is due for Parliament this Thursday even though the parliamentary opposition is protesting that it has not had enough time to study the provisions of the bill.
The primary concerns centre on the continued role of the Cabinet in procurement and the possible sidelining of the soon to be established Public Procurement Commission.
The bill, according to a World Bank programme document, should have been enacted at the end of last year. The new legislation seeks to address deficiencies in the previous law which had been enacted during the life of the last Parliament, and which the World Bank said further centralised the tendering process by allowing the continuation of Cabinet intervention in the approval process, and not recognising the Public Procurement Commission. The World Bank also said there should be proper public consultation on the bill. Enactment of procurement legislation is one of the conditions for World Bank support for it providing poverty reduction support credit.
The bill was read for the first time on June 5 but it was not available for parliamentarians to look over on that date. Stabroek News understands that the MPs living in Georgetown and its environs have in the past few days received their copies but those living in the hinterland are unlikely to receive copies before Thursday.
This is one of the deficiencies of the parliamentary arrangements, which the Parliamentary Management Committee is expected to address.
Standing Order 46(3) stipulates that “No Bill shall be read a second time before the expiration of seven days from the date of its publication in the (Official) Gazette and until it has been printed and circulated to Members.”
Another of the opposition’s concerns is the lack of opportunity for consultation which Stabroek News understands the Ministry of Finance will address in a series of consultations with various interest groups beginning tomorrow. However, the parliamentary opposition is not convinced that this would allow for the inputs of the various groups to be properly incorporated into the bill.
One observer has told Stabroek News that the manner in which the bills are circulated does not allow for interested parties other than parliamentarians to properly study their provisions and to allow them to raise their concerns about particular parts of the bill.
A major concern about the proposed legislation is what the opposition perceives as the government’s attempt to undermine the position of the Public Procurement Commis-sion as the main body overseeing the procurement process countrywide. Opposi-tion parliamentarians conceive of the Procurement Commission as being at the apex of the system. However, the bill proposes the creation of a National Procurement and Tender Administration which will report to the Minister of Finance and be managed by a National Board comprising seven members, five of whom will be nominated by the Finance Minister and two by the private sector. Two of the members will be required to serve on a full-time basis and one of them will be appointed by the Minister to chair the board.
Once the Procurement Commission is in place, the Board, according to the legislation, will be responsible for exercising jurisdiction over tenders over certain dollar amounts; appointing a pool of evaluators for such period as it may determine; and maintaining efficient record-keeping and quality assurance systems.
Until then the legislation gives it responsibility for among other things adjudicating debarment proceedings, reviewing upon request decisions by procuring entities, making regulations governing procurement under the Act, determining the forms of documents for procurement and organising training seminars.
The process for establishing the Public Procurement Commission has already been initiated and the Public Accounts Committee has set up a sub-committee among whose members are PPP/C General Secretary, Donald Ramotar and PNCR chief whip, Lance Carberry, to evaluate the ten nominees for the five-member board.
Another concern is the bill’s provision that the Cabinet should have the right to review all procurements which exceed $15M and may object to the award of a procurement contract if it determines that the procuring entity failed to comply with the applicable procurement procedures. In the case of such an objection the legislation says that the section under which the objection is made must not be construed as authorising the Cabinet to award a tender to any other supplier or contractor.
The section also provides for the Public Procurement Commission and the Cabinet to annually review the Cabinet’s threshold for review of procurements, with the objective of increasing the threshold over time so as to promote the goal of progressively phasing out the Cabinet involvement and decentralising the procurement process.
There is some concern also with the enactment of the bill in the absence of legislation dealing with engineering standards. Observers have told Stabroek News that whereas engineers from anywhere can come to Guyana and set up practice without having to meet any professional requirements, Guyanese engineers must meet certain professional standards when they go to practise even in other Caribbean states. They contend that such legislation is particularly needed in Guyana where evidence of engineering failures abounds.
