Minority Leader concerned about THA adherence to procurement law
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).
In April this year, the Cabinet approved the full proclamation of the remaining sections of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, No 1 of 2015.
The law makes it mandatory for anyone providing services in the public sector to be registered with the Office of the Procurement Regulator (OPR).
However, at a virtual news conference yesterday, the Minority Leader expressed reservations that the THA may not be fully compliant with the law.
“I have great concerns at this time that even now there are a number of procurement activities happening with respect to the proclamation of this new act and whether the THA is in fact in breach,” he said.
Morris said his information is that not many suppliers of services of the THA are registered with the OPR as is required.
“If that is the case, then it begs the question, how are they going about procuring goods and services for the THA? I see this as an important matter,” he added.
Morris said this was why he is reaching out to all the administrators of divisions in the THA.
“Because it is important that they understand the role that they play in the procurement process, in fact, the administrators and the Chief Administrator is the key person and she provided delegated responsibility to other administrators and they are really seen as the procurement officer of the division and the accounting officer of the division. So in that realm any breach or flout of the law they are ultimately responsible and culpable and therefore it falls upon them to ensure that before they award contracts that the process can stand scrutiny, that the process is in keeping with the law.”
He encouraged the Chief Administrator to take the lead on this to ensure THA has the necessary systems in place to comply with the law.
In response to the concerns raised by the minority Deputy Chief Secretary Dr Faith B Yisrael said, “It’s clear from listening to the members of our Parliament last week, that it was practically impossible to be fully compliant with the new procurement legislation.”
She told Guardian Media that notwithstanding the THA has been working with its procurement officers, its legal officers and its administrators to ensure that all activities within the THA follow the law as closely as possible.
“It is important to note that the OPR is yet to publish the modified regulations to accompany the amendments to the legislation passed last week. So, like many other organisations, we wait,” she said.
Final amendments to the procurement law were passed last week with Government votes alone in the House of Representatives, as the Opposition withheld its support.
According to the Government, the amendments were necessary to deal with excessively lengthy processes in the law which could have made government operations grind to a halt.
The issue of two exemption orders passed for the Caricom summit and the Judiciary was publicly queried by Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein with threats of legal action.
This resulted in Parliament subsequently being recalled for extraordinary sittings to rectify the issues.
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