Regulator: Proclaim procurement law

PROCUREMENT Regulator Moonilal Lalchan supported the view of Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, that many public bodies are not yet compliant with the Public Procurement and Disposal of Property Bill 2015.

But, speaking to Newsday on Friday, he said the legislation should be proclaimed nonetheless.

He said his office had approached 314 public bodies, of which 70 had responded, and of these about 20 had indicated "some level of preparedness" for the legislation to be enacted.

Lalchan expressed concern that if proclamation had to wait until all public bodies were ready, "We will be waiting for ever."

He said those companies getting ready early on would not lag behind, while those not properly preparing – such as by naming a properly qualified procurement officer – would risk creating a lot of litigation down the line.

Asked about the role of the Office of Procurement Regulator (OPR) as regards some bodies' current state of non-readiness, he listed the work his office had been doing to help ready them.

"We issued 43 handbooks and guidelines."

He said the OPR had met many bodies, including several major players, such as WASA, TTEC, Heritage Petroleum, the National Gas Company (NGC) and both new and old administrations of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA.)

Asked if penalties should be threatened against non-compliant bodies, Lalchan replied that at this stage, without proclamation of the legislation, there was no real mandate on such companies.