{"id":32702,"date":"2024-02-22T23:09:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T04:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=32702"},"modified":"2024-02-22T17:45:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T22:45:19","slug":"govt-on-target-for-60-day-contract-unveiling-by-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/govt-on-target-for-60-day-contract-unveiling-by-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov’t ‘on target’ for 60-day contract unveiling by March"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bahamas<\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s top procurement official yesterday predicted that it will be \u201con target\u201d to disclose all contract awards within 60 days \u2013 as required by law \u2013 come March 2024.<\/p>\n

Carl Oliver, the acting chief procurement officer and Ministry of Finance\u2019s deputy director of economic planning, told Tribune Business that the Government plans to disclose all contract awarded via the Go Bonfire online portal for October and November 2023 by February.<\/p>\n

Given that the current Public Procurement Act requires that details on government contract awards be published within 60 days of issuance, he explained that hitting this publication deadline will bring the Davis administration into compliance with the law\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not far away,\u201d Mr Oliver told this newspaper of the 60-day disclosure requirement. \u201cThe information that was just published was from September 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023. The next submission will be for October and November. The deadline for November is the end of January.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn February we will be providing information for October 2023 and November 2023. After that, we will be on target. We\u2019re moving in the right direction, and myself, the financial secretary [Simon Wilson] and the minister [Michael Halkitis] are quite pleased with the results we are getting. We are on schedule for March.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original Public Procurement Act, which came into effect on September 1, 2021, but has now been repealed and replaced, required from that moment on that all government contracts be disclosed within 60 days of their issuance. The Government was supposed to disclose the name and address of winning bidders, the procuring entity, the procurement selection method and the value of the contract.<\/p>\n

The revised Public Procurement Act took effect on July 1 this year. The Government\u2019s initial release of contracts awarded via the Go Bonfire portal provides the value of the awards, identifies the procuring entity and procurement vendor, plus the winning bidder, but provided no address for the latter or any further details.<\/p>\n

That first release, which came in mid-October 2023, covered the nine months to end-June that year and detailed 843 contracts worth a total $140m. Yesterday\u2019s release, which covers up to end-September last year, effectively covers the three-month period that comprises the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Based on the information provided, it showed a further $18.5m in contracts were awarded over the three months to end-September 2023. This took the total value of contracts awarded for the 13 months since September 1, 2022, to $158.477m, but not all agencies, ministries and departments were included in the list or that figure.<\/p>\n

Mr Oliver yesterday confirmed that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and Water & Sewerage Corporation, which are major contract issuers, \u201chaven\u2019t been given the green light yet\u201d to use the Go Bonfire platform because training of the relevant executives is ongoing and they are still getting to understand which procurement method to use.<\/p>\n

He estimated that the SOEs should be ready to start using the procurement portal by \u201clate February\u201d or early March, again acknowledging the challenges in changing the culture and \u201cstatus quo\u201d where successive administrations have disclosed minimal details on public contact awards.<\/p>\n

The Government has frequently come under attack from Michael Pintard, leader of the Opposition, and other members of the Free National Movement (FNM) who have accused it of deliberately failing to comply with the Public Procurement Act and especially its provisions demanding greater disclosures, openness and transparency around the awarding of government contracts.<\/p>\n

But Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, late last year asserted there was \u201cnever any sort of desire or intention to circumvent\u201d the Public Procurement Act\u2019s requirements as he blamed any non-compliance on the need to put in place supporting infrastructure.<\/p>\n

He added that the Davis administration has had to ensure public officials are fully trained and equipped to implement the Act\u2019s legally-mandated requirements. It has also had to appoint a chief procurement officer, and implement the necessary software.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to really effect it, there was a large infrastructure that had to be put in place at the back end of it,\u201d Mr Halkitis said of the Act. \u201cFor example, the appointment of a chief procurement officer, the training of procurement committees in not only the Ministry of Finance, but in every single ministry and government agency. We\u2019re talking about IT, acquiring the IT and getting people trained up on it, and so that is what we have been doing for the last, you know, 18 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at a position right now where we have just about completed the training. And there are some of the contracts that have to be uploaded. We think we are almost at a position where those are completed. So, you know, we will begin to do that. We can look for that in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Halkitis added: \u201cBut I would just like to say this now. [There] never was any sort of desire or intention to circumvent but, you know, it\u2019s very, very easy to go into Parliament and pass a law and say we\u2019re doing this and doing that. You know, we see a number of pieces of legislation where we have to go back now.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the back end of it, there are a lot of requirements that we had to do. So the public will see that very shortly. We\u2019re committed to doing it, those few agencies that have not fully uploaded. We have people working on that now to get that done as soon as possible. So you\u2019ll see that shortly\u2026definitely before the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: Contract-agreement<\/em><\/p>\n

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

The Bahamas The Government\u2019s top procurement official yesterday predicted that it will be \u201con target\u201d to disclose all contract awards within 60 days \u2013 as required by law \u2013 come…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":6598,"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":[166,173,71],"class_list":["post-32702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-bahamas","tag-contracts","tag-procurement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Contract-agreement-signature-Pixabay-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-8vs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29721,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wilson-govt-working-on-complying-with-public-procurement-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":32702,"position":0},"title":"Wilson: Govt \u2018working on\u2019 complying with Public Procurement Act","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"August 31, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Bahamas FINANCIAL Secretary Simon Wilson could not say when the government would comply with the Public Procurement Act\u2019s requirement to disclose contract awards but said officials are working on doing so. 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