{"id":37413,"date":"2024-11-28T23:17:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T04:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=37413"},"modified":"2024-11-28T16:27:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T21:27:34","slug":"raymond-urges-charges-for-procurement-breaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/raymond-urges-charges-for-procurement-breaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Raymond urges charges for Procurement breaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trinidad and Tobago<\/p>\n

PUBLIC bodies that have breached the laws in the Procurement Act should be charged, past president of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) Afra Raymond has said.<\/p>\n

Raymond made the comment on Monday while speaking at part two of the Caribbean Corporate Governance Institute (CCGI) Virtual Procurement Series.<\/p>\n

His statement came on the heels of the first report of the Office of the Procurement Regulator (OPR) which was laid in Parliament last week.<\/p>\n

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The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, 2023 became law last year.<\/p>\n

The report found more than 60 entities in breach of the law, Procurement Regulator Beverly Khan stated.<\/p>\n

Apart from Raymond, managing director of Raymond and Pierre, the virtual series which focused on the implications of the procurement law, included attorney Kelvin Ramkissoon, JCCI president Fazir Khan, and manager of Contracts and Procurement National Gas Company (NGC) Keith London.<\/p>\n

Raymond commended the OPR for its work in producing its first comprehensive report, but underscored that more needs to done. He said it is critical to level charges against those found in breach of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was staggered to see that you have organisations like UDeCOTT (Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago), HDC (Housing Development Corporation), NIDCO (National Infrastructure Development Company), with apparent breaches in terms of their reporting. These are mainline organisations that have huge budgets running into the billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not small-time organisations. We have the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). From what I can glean from the report, there is a gap in its compliance, a serious gap in its compliance with the provision of the act.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that entities such at the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) also had gaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, we had Ministry of National Security, it was mentioned in the TV clip and then we have Tourism, Culture and Arts also having major gaps,\u201d said Raymond.<\/p>\n

He said the Procurement Regulator stated that \u201cthere were $5 billion worth of contracts awarded in the period under examination in an uncompetitive manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening is that we have a challenge for the OPR; there is a challenge for how it has to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raymond said the question now is what should be done with these defects. \u201cWe established this body and we created this law to bring some order to a very disorderly part of our society, the challenge for the OPR staff is what do you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Raymond recommended that in some of those organisations that are in breach, \u201ccharges need to be drawn up and made against them. Let us start with the simple ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have a DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions)\u2014and this is not me being personal, this is facts\u2014that have tremendous difficulty in handling complex fraud and complex cases \u2026that whole question of white-collar crime befuddles a lot us. So, the whole of CLICO (debacle) took place, the report was published in Parliament \u2026. eight years ago, and the DPP still studying the report.\u201d<\/p>\n

He questioned where the country is at where this matter is concerned.<\/p>\n

Raymond believes the OPR must start with simple consequences to show its level of seriousness to those in breach.<\/p>\n

Charge those who failed to file<\/p>\n

For instance, he said, entities that did not file the name of their procurement officer, \u201cthe people who didn\u2019t give their quarterly report, they need to be brought up on charges and those charges need to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe OPR needs to start doing the second part of its work. We do the training, the report is finished and now that we have these findings, we need to advance to the next stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Focusing on the actual Act, Raymond pointed out that it includes \u201csome tremendous strengths\u201d adding that the Act was amended by the politicians and reduced in scope.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

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Image: pexels-pixabay<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Trinidad and Tobago PUBLIC bodies that have breached the laws in the Procurement Act should be charged, past president of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) Afra…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":35578,"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":[157,71,125,137],"class_list":["post-37413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-anti-corruption","tag-procurement","tag-public-procurement","tag-trinidad-and-tobago"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/pexels-pixabay-60504-scaled-e1722562889288.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-9Jr","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30459,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/minority-leader-concerned-about-tha-adherence-to-procurement-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":37413,"position":0},"title":"Minority Leader concerned about THA adherence to procurement law","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"October 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Trinidad and Tobago Tobago Minority Leader Kelvon Morris has revealed plans to write to the Chief Administrator expressing concerns that the procurement laws are not being adhered to by the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). 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