JCC calls on AG: Name procurement-law slackers

GOVERNMENT agencies that have failed to appoint procurement officers are “slack,” says Fazir Khan, president of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC).

In a media release on Wednesday, the JCC called on Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, to identify all state agencies that have failed to appoint procurement officers.

The release said the Office of the Procurement Regulator (OPR) had done all it was supposed to and was awaiting compliance by state entities.

“The JCC again calls on the Prime Minister to take charge of this long languishing process and make good on his repeated promises to the country to implement procurement reform without further delay” the release said.

Newsday contacted Public Administration Minister Allyson West, who said as far as she was aware, all ministries had procurement officers.

Khan said while he believes that may be true, there are state entities, not ministries. that lack procurement officers. One of the entities that have failed to appoint procurement officers is the Judiciary.

“So entities that have not stepped up and done what they're supposed to do are slackers, in my opinion" Khan said.

On June 22, Armour said the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act 2015, which was amended in 2016, 2017 and 2020, was assented to in 2020, and is now awaiting proclamation. He said then that the Government placed high priority on and was fully committed to proclaiming the law.

In the release, Khan said the AG's supposedly waiting on ‘extensive support’ from the OPR is "disingenuous and dangerous." He added that it was clearly a ruse to delay the full operationalisation of the legislation.

“The OPR has completed all of its mandates including meeting with all relevant state agencies over the last four years. The OPR has no power to appoint procurement officers to various agencies spending public money.”

Khan added that since 2016, Finance Minister Colm Imbert had touted the operationalisation of the law was coming, yet to date nothing has happened.

“Every year since, monies were allocated to various public bodies post-budget. Why have the relevant ministers and permanent secretaries not appointed procurement officers to operate within the intent of the new legislation?

"Instead, the taxpaying public has to accept that these public bodies continue to spend public money without independent oversight by the OPR.”

The release called on both Armour and Imbert to publicly identify all public bodies which "have demonstrated ongoing negligence or abdicated their duty” in appointing procurement officers.