Procurement boss admits hurdles in way of new legislation
Trinidad and Tobago
Chester Sambrano
Procurement Regulation chairman Moonilal Lalchan says despite the readiness of his office for the full proclamation and implementation of the Parliament–approved procurement legislation, there remain some hurdles to cross.
Althoughs the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, 2015 was assented to on January 14, 2015, it only comes into operation on a date to be fixed by the President by proclamation.
But to get to that point, public bodies have to be ready to comply.
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the Transparency Institute of Trinidad and Tobago (TTTI) on Wednesday, Lalchan explained the efforts he and his team have been making to foster compliance.
He said since January 2019, they have been writing to public bodies asking them to do a readiness assessment.
He said out of the 415 main public bodies, to date, only 72 have responded to the OPR (Office of the Procurement Regulator).
“This readiness assessment is a very comprehensive check list that puts all public bodies in a state of readiness to be ready for the full proclamation,” he said.
Lalchan also explained that since 2018, they had put out a bulletin asking the public bodies to appoint a named procurement officer but only a selected few have complied.
“One of the sticking points really, and I would have mentioned it early, is the unavailability of named procurement officers. That is critical because that forms part of the whole infrastructure to get this act fully operationalised and we will be speaking very clearly to the Attorney General, that has to be done as a matter of urgency,” he explained.
Lalchan did, however, commend the Government ministries,, most of whom he said are preparing.
Last Tuesday, AG Reginald Armour met with the OPR and asked for them to draft a timeline of when the Act can be fully operationalised.
Lalchan said this is being worked on actively and will be presented to the AG as soon as possible. He said they “are pushing very hard to get it proclaimed as quickly as possible.”
He said as it related to the OPR, they already have 1,000 contractors registered on their database. He said all their databases for the full operationalisation of the Act is in place.
On Tuesday, the JCC (Joint Consultative Council) wrote a letter to the editor expressing its dissatisfaction with the slow pace of implementation of the Act.
“While the JCC is heartened by the Attorney General’s meeting with the procurement regulator, we remain deeply concerned and disappointed by the lack of timelines given by the AG for taking his note to Cabinet to facilitate the proclamation of the new legislation,” JCC president Fazir Khan said.
One day earlier, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said he too was disappointed that the Act is yet to be fully proclaimed but he promised this will be done soon.
“So, there’s gonna be a little delay. But it is not because we want to delay it. It is because we want to respond to what has been identified as pitfalls with far-reaching consequences. And as soon as the Attorney General is in a position to address those, he will inform the country and we will move with the reasonable haste to get it put on the books. That is where we are with procurement legislation,” he said.
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