Gov’t Looking to Further Refine the Public Procurement Regime
Jamaica
Having addressed the bottleneck issue within the public procurement process, the Government is now focusing on eliminating the incidence of duplications, among other impediments.
This was disclosed by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, while speaking during Wednesday’s (November 30) handover ceremony for 50 new garbage trucks and 10 motorcycles acquired for the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), at National Heroes Park in Kingston.
Dr. Clarke pointed out that consequent on duplications and other issues within the public procurement regime, “there are certain steps that might need to change, certain thresholds that might need to be adjusted, certain steps that need to be removed”.
“We definitely have to make changes in our procurement system to make it more efficient,” he said.
The Minister pointed out that the change has started with the Public Procurement Commission (PPC).
“They were recently certified as ISO:9000, and we measure the time it takes when items get to the PPC and when they leave the PPC,” he informed.
Dr. Clarke advised that “that’s all transparently documented”, adding “I am proud of the fact that, as far as the PPC is concerned, the time for items to remain with them is down to two weeks, when it used to be eight weeks several years ago”.
He assured that the Government will continue to look at removing impediments within the public procurement process.
Established on April 1, 2019, in accordance with the Public Procurement Act, 2015, the PPC is the organisation that examines and gives oversight to Jamaica’s public procurement processes.
Public Procurement, also known as ‘public sector procurement’ or ‘government procurement’, is the process of acquiring goods, services and works, using State funds in an economical and effective manner.
image: Contract-agreement