PAC invites nominees for procurement commission
Despite continuing contentions over its chairmanship, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has moved to seek nominees in order to reconstitute the Public Procurement Commission (PPC).
During a virtual press conference on Thursday, Chairman of the PAC David Patterson said that at a meeting on Monday there was a unanimous agreement to move forward in seeking applications for suitable candidates for the PPC.
Patterson said the PAC agreed unanimously that letters will be written to the individual political parties in Parliament inviting them to submit nominees for the PPC directly to the PAC.
As a result, he said on Wednesday letters were dispatched the General Secretaries of the Peoples Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the Alliance for Change (AFC), the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), The New Movement (TNM) and A New and United Guyana (ANUG).
Commencing on Friday, Patterson said, public advertisements would be placed in the various forms of media and on the Parliament website inviting the public, private sector agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other institutions to submit names of suitable candidates to the PPC.
An ad in Friday’s Stabroek News invited the submission of the names of proposed nominees from stakeholders, political parties, civil organisations, as well as individuals with an interest in the establishment and proper working of the PPC.
It explained that it is the wish of the PAC that the composition of the Public Procurement Commission would reflect, as far as possible, the national and gender make-up of Guyana. “The nominees should first and foremost be competent to carry out the required duties. The usual considerations regarding the need to be of good repute, without criminal records and [with] no history of bankruptcy, apply,” it said.
According to Patterson, May 17th has been set as the date for return of all applications, after which they would be considered and recommendations will be forwarded to the National Assembly for ratification.
“The AFC is committed to ensuring that this important Constitutional Commission is fully established in the shortest possible time,” he said.
The PPC is legally charged to “monitor public procurement and the procedure therefor in order to ensure that the procurement of goods, services and execution of works are conducted in a fair, equitable, transparent competitive and cost effective manner according to law and such policy guidelines as may be determined by the National Assembly.”
Image: The Blue Diamond Gallery