Disregarding procurement rules a troubling culture within BVI gov’ts
A pervasive culture of disregarding rules and procedures in government has left Auditor General (AG) Sonia Webster with some amount of concern.
During a live hearing of the Commission of Inquiry (COI), Webster said she found that it was becoming acceptable within the government to disregard procurement requirements.
“I think there needs to be an understanding that those rules are put in place to protect the government,” Webster said. “They’re put in place to protect transparency.”
Webster said the absence of these measures creates what she describes as ‘a slippery slope’. The AG also said she is concerned that if the practice is not arrested, it will be a very costly exercise for the BVI in the long run.
The issue of disregard for procurement procedures is one with which Webster said she has become intimately familiar in her 30-year tenure inside the office of the AG.
Webster said she has seen a willingness in public officers to basically bypass the rules and make excuses for having bypassed them.
Contract splitting lacks transparency
According to the AG, contract splitting has been and continues to be one of the biggest issues that circumvent the rules of procurement. She also described it as the most basic form of circumvention of tendering requirements and said the practise was not being regulated.
“The regulations in place for public procurement are insufficient to ensure transparency and value-for-money [when there is] contract splitting,” the AG noted.
She said the practice of contract splitting risks incidents of cronyism, favouritism, poor value for money, and the hiring of inexperienced contractors.
She recommended that the regulations for public tender be reviewed for improved transparency.
Even as the AG decried the practice, at least two former ministers in the previous National Democratic Party government who gave testimony during the COI, stated emphatically that Cabinet has the authority to override procurement regulations by splitting major contracts into smaller ones.
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