Jearlean John: Now or never for procurement law

OPPOSITION Senator Jearlean John said business, civil society, the media and other actors in society in Trinidad and Tobago were now uniquely united in calling for the full enactment of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act 2015.

She was speaking against a bill to amend it in the Senate on Tuesday.

John urged the full enactment of the partly-proclaimed act, which the bill seeks to alter. She said the general public is “tired, weary, fed up and sick” of the non-implementation of the act, telling the Government to bring regulations needed to put it into effect.

John said, “The people in industry say, 'We want to be regulated. We don’t want the taint of someone questioning our business and our business model.'

“The private sector is telling the government, ‘Let’s do this’ – and the Government is resisting. Don’t lose this moment. It may never come again.”

She said five years after the act was passed in Parliament, everyone was calling for the regulations.

However, the Government’s amendments before the Senate propose to "fundamentally alter the act" even before it has been enacted.

“We have to test-drive the act first, to see what works.”

John said the Government was elected to deal with matters like this act, plus legislation promoting freedom of information, campaign finance reform and whistle-blower protection.

Saying the bill was not moving TT forward, she said, “They just kick that can down the road over and over again.”

She said the bill weakens the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) by shifting oversight for major financial transactions into the hands of a politician, the Minister of Finance.

Again supporting the act, not the amendment bill, she appealed, “What we have today is that there is widespread consensus. Now is the time. We’ll never have it again.”

Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial said the Government erred legally in saying the bill needed just a simple majority.

Apparently referring to the bill’s exclusion of government-to-government contracts, she said the bill is forcing different treatment on parties depending on where their financing is coming from.

"It ought to have been brought as special-majority legislation,” she said.

Lutchmedial said the original 2015 act had been passed by a special majority, and so should be the amendment.

The bill would decimate the OPR, she said, by “chopping, butchering and gutting” a very good piece of legislation, which no one had ever had the chance to see work.

Lutchmedial noted the Joint Consultative Council (JCC), media and OPR had all joined the call against the bill.

She said the Uff Report (on the construction sector) had lamented “a culture of corruption in TT,” including poor tendering processes. All four objectives of this report could be carried out by this act, she argued.

“It’s a sad day when we stand here saying, 'Don’t take this away.'

"They have not given act a chance to work and not even brought regulations. Instead of bringing legislation for a discussion, they bring this bill to take away the teeth from the regulator.”

While saying the phrase "government-to-government arrangements" sounds squeaky clean and diplomatic, she said the Senate must legislate not just for today.

She related, “Shanghai Construction Group was building a $30 million church in Guanapo. The police could not even say who owned the land or where the money came from.”

This was a reference to a church commissioned by the Urban Dvelopment Corporation (Udecott) and reportedly connected to its chairman, Calder Hart, and late prime minister Patrick Manning and his spiritual adviser.

Lutchmedial said it was unjust to gut this legislation before it had a chance to make an impact, noting the unity in TT over this, including support from the Law Association.