JCC fact-checks Faris on procurement law

President of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry Fazir Khan fact-checked the Attorney General and called for further clarification of aspects of the new procurement legislation in a release sent to the media on Wedensday.

The release was sent days after a press conference at the Attorney General’s office on St Vincent Street, Port of Spain where the AG explained parts of the legislation and called for public bodies to speak “facts,” as well as calling on media houses to do fact-checking whenever quoting public figures.

Khan first agreed with the AG that the Office of the Procurement Regulator still has oversight of the disposal of public property, but said contrary to the AG’s statement that government had aggressively pursued the implementation of the regulation, the former president had not appointed the regulator until 2018.

“We need to inform the public that it was civil society groups, including the JCC, that pursued the former President on the matter,” he said.

Khan said in dealing with a column on the issue by Afra Raymond, a former JCC president , Al-Rawi skirted around Raymond’s argument that the act could endanger citizens’ constitutional right to equality of treatment.

“We implore the AG to respond to the issue raised that ‘these amendments to the act require a special majority as they infringe upon the rights enshrined in section four of our Constitution.’ We humbly submit that this is a case of the spirit of the constitutional law as opposed to the letter of said law.”

Khan then addressed the AG’s statement on the Public Procurement Review Board (PPRB), the body that, according to the act, is tasked with treating with any and all proceedings which challenge the decision by government to award contracts to tendered companies. He questioned whose responsibility it was to ensure that an office is established and the necessary framework is put in place for the board to begin operations.

“Isn’t there a collective responsibility by the government and independent bodies to realise this necessary component? Are we to believe that the government is aggressively pursuing the implementation of procurement legislation if appointed board members have no office? Or do civil society groups have to take up this slack on behalf of the citizens of this country?”

Khan finally called on the AG to explain why the Prime Minister told the media the procurement legislation would be implemented soon after the budget was read.

“Was the PM also, to quote the AG, 'oversimplifying the process'? The Prime Minister created an expectation in the public space that there would be the implementation of this legislation which, from many clamouring quarters, appears to be eagerly anticipated and extremely long overdue.

“The JCC would greatly appreciate it if the learned AG can utilise his team of lawyers to advise the public on specifically what is missing from the Draft Regulations so that the public can get a sense that the government is actually aggressively pursuing operationalisation of the OPR,” Khan said.