House backs Senate changes to Procurement Bill

THE House of Representatives on Friday voted to approve the Senate’s amendments to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property (Amendment) Bill 2020 which alters the original 2015 parent act. However the Opposition voted against the measure, declaring their job is to defend the original legislation.

Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein used the occasion to hit the Government over allegedly hasty legislation, noting the preceding Senate debate had lasted until Friday morning (at 1.50 am.) Saying he had found errors in the amendments to the bill due to it being rushed, he hit, “You must take your time.”

Hosein alleged the bill lets the Minister of Finance undermine the role of the Procurement Regulator in cases of procurement of items relating to national security. He said the bill lets the minister create exemptions to the remit of the parent act and then lets the former lay down guidelines to the latter who then is basically stopped from raising any objections.

“You are usurping the Procurement Regulator’s independence. This is a very dangerous amendment.”

Hosein said in the Senate the bill had been passed by just one vote. Saying the bill goes against transparency, accountability and good governance in TT, Hosein vowed, “We will not support the amendments. This act removes the independence of the Procurement Regulator.”

Finance Minister Colm Imbert in winding up had a different view of the previous Senate vote. “It was 16-to-six with a margin of ten votes. Not one but ten.”

Imbert said the amendment was fully consistent with sections of the parent act which exempted items under national security, namely sections 27, 39 and 52 . He scoffed that these three sections originally had been “passed by the UNC”, that is, the former People’s Partnership government.

Imbert denied that a now-cancelled public-housing contract with a Chinese firm (presumably the China Gezhouba Group) had been a government-to-government contract, a class which the bill exempts from the act. “It was a contract between HDC (Housing Development Corporation) and a private contractor. It had nothing to do with the Government. It does not fall under any amendments here. That is a vicious untruth.”

The House also approved Senate amendments to other bills. These were the Miscellaneous Provisions [2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)] (No. 2) Bill, 2020; the Miscellaneous Amendments (Powers of Statutory Authorities and Matters related to certain Boards) Bill, 2020; the Miscellaneous Provisions (Administration of Justice) Bill, 2020; and the Miscellaneous Provisions (FATF Compliance) Bill, 2020.