{"id":29500,"date":"2023-08-17T23:11:31","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T04:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=29500"},"modified":"2023-08-17T20:41:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T01:41:42","slug":"law-is-ignored-over-contracts-contractor-chief-says-government-failing-to-publish-as-required","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/law-is-ignored-over-contracts-contractor-chief-says-government-failing-to-publish-as-required\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018LAW IS IGNORED OVER CONTRACTS\u2019: Contractor chief says government failing to publish as required"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bahamas<\/p>\n

\u00a0Contractors Association President Leonard Sands slammed the government\u2019s continued failure to publish contract awards under the Public Procurement Act.<\/p>\n

A revised version of the law requires the government to disclose the name and address of winning bidders, the procuring entity, the procurement selection method and the award amount within 60 days of the contract awardMr Sands said the Davis administration is choosing not to comply with the requirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government and the minister of public works by choice are deciding to break the law,\u201d he said. \u201cThe law says what should happen and they do not do what the act and the law says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Sands said the law is flawed because\u00a0it imposes no penalty for non-disclosure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why the Public Procurement Act didn\u2019t go far enough,\u201d he said. \u201cThey already foresaw that they could abuse it, because if you don\u2019t have a penalty, what\u2019s the purpose of me adhering to a law? If someone tells you you could only drive 50mph, but if you drive 60mph nothing happens, you gon\u2019 drive 60mph.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany times the government itself is the one that abuses situations in the country. They should ensure the public is aware who is awarded contracts so they could be seen to be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis administration officials did not answer questions about the matter before press time yesterday.<\/p>\n

Financial Secretary Simon Wilson said in April that the government would publish contract awards when the reporting capacity of its procurement system is improved. The government launched the Go Bonfire Platform procurement portal last year. Mr Wilson said officials were back filing information on the new system. The status of those efforts is unclear.<\/p>\n

Mr Sands, however, said notifying the public of contract awards should not be complicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody,\u201d he said, \u201chad to sign a document. You know exactly who that person was who signed it, okay? All of the things they tell you are garbage responses to their intention to willfully hide information from the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concern about the lack of transparency over procurement processes has persisted for years, a problem the law was designed\u00a0to cure.<\/p>\n

The law has no effect,\u201d Mr Sands claimed. \u201cThe Public Procurement Act and its improvements have no effect. The same things that were going on prior to the act being in place continues.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said contractors do not\u00a0expect much from the government.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cContractors know that, at the end of the day, the persons who the government and or the minister and or whoever wants to have that contract, will have that contract. There\u2019s nothing to do with whether they follow all the protocols of the Public Procurement Act. That\u2019s the sentiment across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0In its 2022 Investment Climate Statement report on The Bahamas, the US Bureau of Economic and Affairs highlighted procurement issue\u201cThe government passed a Public Procurement Act and launched an e-procurement and suppliers registry system in 2021. While the registry system is in place, the Public Procurement Act has yet to be fully implemented. Companies complain that the tender process for public contracts is inconsistent and allege it is difficult to obtain information on the status of bids,\u201d the US agency said.<\/p>\n

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

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Image: Law-scrabble-tiles<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Bahamas \u00a0Contractors Association President Leonard Sands slammed the government\u2019s continued failure to publish contract awards under the Public Procurement Act. A revised version of the law requires the government to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":3644,"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":[157,166,73],"class_list":["post-29500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-anti-corruption","tag-bahamas","tag-legislation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Law-scrabble-tiles-CQF-Avocat-Pexels-e1649276824460.jpeg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-7FO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29962,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/law-is-ignored-over-contracts-contractor-chief-says-government-failing-to-publish-as-required-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":29500,"position":0},"title":"\u2018LAW IS IGNORED OVER CONTRACTS\u2019: Contractor chief says government failing to publish as required","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"September 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Bahamas BAHAMAS Contractors Association President Leonard Sands slammed the government\u2019s continued failure to publish contract awards under the Public Procurement Act. 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