Gov’t To Reserve Public Tenders For Small Businesses
THE Minnis administration’s public procurement reforms will “set aside” specific contracts for only small Bahamian businesses to bid on, the Deputy Prime Minister said yesterday.
Opening debate on the 2017-2018 mid-year Budget statement, K P Turnquest said the Government intends to introduce new legislation in the area of procurement and e-procurement.
“The focus of this more modern framework would be on enhancing the transparency of bidding procedures,” he added. “This legislation will be revolutionary in many respects. In large part it will discourage, in the most transparent of ways, the practice of simply handing out patronage to cronies away from the eyes of the taxpayers who are footing the bill.”
Mr Turnquest said that apart from much-needed transparency in the spending of taxpayers’ monies, the legislation “will also allow the Minister to set aside specific bids solely for small Bahamian businesses only to allow them to get an opportunity to bid on government jobs and get the chance to grow and flourish.
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