{"id":28486,"date":"2023-06-22T23:53:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T04:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=28486"},"modified":"2023-06-22T18:34:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T23:34:20","slug":"transparency-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/transparency-please\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Transparency, please\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barbados<\/p>\n

Independent Senator Dr Kristina Hinds wants to see a greater effort made to improve transparency in Government\u2019s procurement process, as she suggested that some Barbadians were still \u201csuspicous\u201d about the system.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the Upper House on Wednesday during debate on the\u00a0Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill,<\/b>\u00a02023, Dr Hinds noted that despite the introduction of the e-procurement system, Bonfire, there was still concern among citizens that certain businesses continued to secure the major government contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look at Barbados and if we look at this region, some of the things that we may find are that some of the entities that have amassed wealth, that are wealth creators, are able to do so because of their ability to be successful in bidding for government contracts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There is a fear and there is a suspicion \u2013 and this is not related to a particular government, I\u2019m talking about something systemic \u2013 . . . that when it comes to the award of large contracts, the usual suspects are the ones who would feature prominently. The scraps would remain for those smaller players who, perhaps because of how the tender is constructed, would not be able to perhaps successfully bid for certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Individuals and companies supplying goods and services to the Government will have to be registered in the Bonfire procurement system which is in its pilot phase. It transitions the procurement process from paper-based to an electronic platform.<\/p>\n

Although Hinds acknowledged that the new process will make applications for government contracts hassle-free, she said it did not go far enough to tackle the suspicions that Barbadians have about the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to remember that these are tools, and these are not solutions. So we digitise something, it can solve some things. It can solve the long waits, for instance, but it does not solve some of the other things I was speaking about. The concern is that it is those within a network that are able to have access to particular contracts; that they might know about them early, for some reason that has nothing to do with this legislation or the technology,\u201d said the Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.<\/p>\n

She added that transparency in the political process is also crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suspicion that remains in this country [is] that persons or entities who may be funding certain political activities may \u2018have an in\u2019 to the tendering process. There is a reason that suspicion exists, and that is because we do not know how political campaigns are financed from either side.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments change and each time they change the suspicions remain. Technology is not going to solve that, having a register and having an online mechanism for registering and bidding is not going to address this,\u201d Hinds asserted.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

more<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: pexels-rodrigo-santos<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbados Independent Senator Dr Kristina Hinds wants to see a greater effort made to improve transparency in Government\u2019s procurement process, as she suggested that some Barbadians were still \u201csuspicous\u201d about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":28487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[250],"tags":[129,71,199],"class_list":["post-28486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-barbados","tag-procurement","tag-project-management"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/pexels-rodrigo-santos-3888151-scaled-e1687476726982.jpg?fit=1012%2C672&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-7ps","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5447,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/cdb-and-idb-showcase-procurement-opportunities-for-barbados-private-sector\/","url_meta":{"origin":28486,"position":0},"title":"CDB and IDB showcase procurement opportunities for Barbados private sector","author":"Michele Marius","date":"May 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Projects financed by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) present significant business opportunities for the Region\u2019s private sector. 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On Monday\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News\/Developments"","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Procurement-in-handwriting-The-Blue-Diamond-Gallery.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Procurement-in-handwriting-The-Blue-Diamond-Gallery.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Procurement-in-handwriting-The-Blue-Diamond-Gallery.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Procurement-in-handwriting-The-Blue-Diamond-Gallery.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17151,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/pm-defending-tender-bypass-cites-special-circumstances\/","url_meta":{"origin":28486,"position":1},"title":"PM, defending tender bypass, cites \u2018special\u2019 circumstances","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"June 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has stoutly defended her administration\u2019s handling of contracts, in an apparent response to a growing outcry from the public about one construction firm receiving all major government projects. In fact, Mottley told a gathering today at the re-opening of the St Andrew Outpatient Clinic that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News\/Developments"","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6392,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/tendering-process-bypassed-by-last-government-marshall\/","url_meta":{"origin":28486,"position":2},"title":"TENDERING PROCESS BYPASSED BY LAST GOVERNMENT: MARSHALL","author":"Michele Marius","date":"August 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Several high priced projects executed under the last Government did not go to tender as was required. This revelation came yesterday in the House of Assembly during the debate on the Integrity in Public Life Bill. 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The Rwandan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Injection-drugs-bottle-ampoules-syringe-medical-health-Marco-Verch-Professional-Photographer-and-Speaker-flickr.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Injection-drugs-bottle-ampoules-syringe-medical-health-Marco-Verch-Professional-Photographer-and-Speaker-flickr.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Injection-drugs-bottle-ampoules-syringe-medical-health-Marco-Verch-Professional-Photographer-and-Speaker-flickr.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Injection-drugs-bottle-ampoules-syringe-medical-health-Marco-Verch-Professional-Photographer-and-Speaker-flickr.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28486"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28506,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28486\/revisions\/28506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}