The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), with support from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), has developed, and will implement new procurement and contract management procedures to facilitate a more streamlined and efficient use of their resource pool, including disaster management funds.
After conducting a routine assessment of its operations, geared toward the continual improvement of financial management practices, a number of recommendations for improving the Unit’s procurement system were identified. Updating the existing procurement manual to address gaps related to procurement and contract management was among the suggestions.
CDB’s support included providing training and financing consultancy services to prepare a procurement and contract management manual that will act as a practical guide to CDEMA’s staff. The new procurement and contract management framework was presented to participants from 13 of CDEMA’s 18 Participating States on March 7 during a one-day workshop at the Bank.
“CDB agreed to assist in this undertaking, recognising the opportunity it will offer CEDMA to strengthen its fiduciary management, best realise value for money in its operations, and effectively deploy resources in preparation for and response to disasters that arise,” Douglas Fraser, Head, Procurement, CDB told participants.
“We commend CEDMA on this achievement. At the same time we recognise that this is only the start of the journey, as the next step will be to operationalise the new framework in day-to-day operations, which will naturally be a learning process for the staff, partners, and private sector providers of CEDMA,” he said.
During the workshop, officers from the Region’s National Disaster Offices were trained in the new procedures, and tabled their queries about the new manual, which will apply to procurement undertaken within Participating States for future CDEMA CU projects and activities.
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Image: DFID – UK Department for International Development (flickr)
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THE Water & Sewerage Corporation breached global ‘best practice’ through the former Board’s constant meddling and overturning of management decisions, a forensic audit has found.
Ernst & Young (EY), in its probe of the Corporation’s governance and management, found two occasions where contracts were awarded to vendors not selected by management despite the use of a formal tender/bid process.
Noting that both related to capital works projects financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the report said Proline Underground Utilities was awarded a $1.389 million contract despite Water & Sewerage Corporation recommending that it go to Island Site Development (ISD) following an evaluation of all bids received.
“However, the Board’s contract committee decided to award the contract to Proline despite their bid being more than 20 per cent below the engineer’s estimate,” the EY report found.
“The Cabinet [Board] noted the concern of management that the Proline bid was too low, but the minutes contained no explanation or context to address these concerns, and no justification for reversing management’s decision.
“Furthermore, a change order was processed subsequent to the contract award which increased project spend by $400,000, justifying the concerns of management and negating the apparent rationale for reversing management’s decision (Proline’s initial bid being lower than that of ISD).”
A similar incident occurred with the $1.604 million contract award to Apex Underground Utilities, as Water & Sewerage Corporation management again recommended that it be given to ISD as the “lowest evaluated bid”.
“The Cabinet paper says the recommendation of the management was overturned by the Board’s contract committee with no justification provided, despite the bid of Apex being significantly more expensive (approximately $500,000/20 per cent more expensive),” the EY report found. The findings raise questions over whether Bahamian taxpayers, and Water & Sewerage Corporation customers, received value for money as a result of many decisions made at the Government-owned water supplier.
The report suggests that too much politically-motivated interference, and the ‘correct’ family, political and other connections, have created a culture that undermines effective corporate governance and results in the bypassing of established procedures and protocols.
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Image: Hilary Halliwell (Pexels)
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As perhaps the most longstanding regional organisation, with nearly 20 associated institutions through which it touches the life every Caribbean citizen, the projects undertaken by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) can have far-reaching impact. However, as a regional organisation, CARICOM can seem a bit removed from the business community. As a result, its procurement procedures and processes tend not to be well understood, which undoubtedly would affect the number and quality of the tender responses it receives. Additionally, the organisation will soon be rolling out a Community Procurement Regime within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which has the potential to transform public procurement not only within CARICOM itself, but also in each of its Member States.
Purpose and Objectives
This webinar has been organised to increase awareness among Caribbean Consultants and Vendors (of goods and services) of the changes that are being made to CARICOM’s procurement procedures, and to provide insight into the priority projects (at the regional level) that should be open for tender in 2018. Accordingly, this webinar hopes to achieve the following:
- Apprise attendees of the soon-to-be-implemented Community Procurement Regime, its benefits, opportunities, implementation timeline, and how Consultants and Vendors would be affected
- Provide an overview of CARICOM’s current procurement procedures
- Share CARICOM’s procurement plan for 2018
- Get the Consultant and Vendor community more aware the procedural changes in procurement occurring at the CARICOM level, so that they may be better able to position themselves to adjust and better capitalise on the opportunities that are likely to emerge.
The Speakers
Philip McClauren – Deputy Programme Manager, CSME Unit
Originally from Saint Lucia, Philip has been a career public servant for almost three decades, focusing on areas such as Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Currently, is the Deputy Programme Manager of the CSME Unit in Barbados, and he will be walking us through CARICOM’s new procurement’s framework, the Community Procurement Regime.
Chester James – Programme Manager, Procurement, CARICOM Secretariat
Chester James started his career in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Currently is the Programme Manager, Procurement, of the CARICOM Secretariat located in Guyana. At the webinar, Chester will be sharing with us CARICOM’s procurement plan for 2018, which he would have been instrumental in preparing.
Michele Marius – Host and Moderator, Project Calls
Michele Marius is an experienced Consultant, Manager, Regulator and Engineer who has worked in the private and public sectors, and in developed and developing countries in the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and Southeast Asia. She is the Founder of Project Calls, and has organized this webinar. She will also moderate the proceedings.
Webinar Details
WHEN: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
TIME: 10:30 a.m. (Barbados time, GMT -5)
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN: https://projectcalls.clickmeeting.com/caricom-procurement-framework-2018-plan/register?_ga=2.9889456.488434950.1520865779-994586815.1516292113
NOTE: Places are limited, so do log in 5—10 minutes before the session begins to ensure a place!
Images: P McClauren; C James; M Marius
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–Int’l Oil and Gas Consultant
In order to ensure that a significant portion of local services and products are utilized by foreign companies in the oil sector, procurement rules/guidelines and strategies must be employed at all times.
This advice is what Chatham House has passed on to many countries seeking its help in the oil and gas sector. Chatham House is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in London whose mission is to analyze and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. Government has claimed that it is consulting with and using the advice of the organization.
The organization has strong rules and principles when it comes to local content.
Chatham House notes that in a company’s operations, local content strategies sometimes reside in separate units or in the CSR department. This means local content is often a later consideration in the planning process.
The organization says that a requisite local content ramp up of supplier skills and capacity may be developed too late in the design and engineering process to provide timely local goods and services to the project.
It notes that operators have considered various organizational models for handling local content. Industry discussions recognize the risk that if local content sits with the procurement unit, opportunities for optimizing local content are missed. To avoid this, Chatham House says that different models are being considered to front-load strategic thinking in regard to local content and to better assess the trade-offs that companies must consider between different objectives, such as managing long-term risks versus minimizing costs.
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Image: freestocks.org (Pexels)
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The Central Purchasing Department’s name has been changed to the Government Procurement Department, to reflect its new mandate.
According to Acting Chief Procurement Officer, Janice Worrell, the Department would no longer be focusing on purchasing supplies on behalf of other Ministries and departments.
“The Government Procurement Department will focus on the negotiation of contracts with suppliers and selecting those suppliers from among the list of Approved Suppliers that best meet the needs of the Public Service. Those successful suppliers will be the ones Ministries and departments will purchase from for the given period,” Worrell explained.
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Image: The Blue Diamond Gallery
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