Procurement law skittishness

Despite an impassioned plea by Independent Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye on November 15, there continues to be little government enthusiasm for fully proclaiming the Public Procurement and Disposal of Property Act of 2015.

Chairing a joint select committee hearing, the senator said, “The future of our country, our citizens, depends on us getting it right.”

Procurement Regulator Moonilal Lalchan supported her views, explaining that ten-30 per cent of the country’s spending is lost through procurement-related corruption – a horrifying statistic. As he said, “Think what we could do for the country (with that money) – health care, schooling and infrastructure.”

As the country grapples yet again with flooding and landslides, we wonder what state the overwhelmed and collapsing roads, bridges and drainage systems would be in, had those funds been available to repair and maintain them.

Instead, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh fretted over minor aspects of the law and spurious problems that Mr Lalchan deftly set aside.

Similarly, Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland pondered whether misgivings expressed by the Judiciary should be addressed before proclaiming the act.

Mr Lalchan countered that they had been addressed.

An exchange of letters between the Chief Justice and the Attorney General in June included concerns about staffing to manage its procurement unit.

This was despite efforts to gut the 2015 act, including the arbitrary reduction of the regulator’s term of office from seven years to five (Mr Lalchan’s term ends in January) and the exemption of government-to-government contracts from procurement oversight.

The president of the Joint Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) Fazir Khan, meanwhile, has raised pointed concerns about what he described as the “charade” of government agencies perpetuating a status quo that all parties acknowledge has led to financial leakage in government spending for decades.

In June, AMCHAM, the TTMA, the TT Chamber and the Transparency Institute issued a joint statement calling for the legislation to be proclaimed and implemented urgently. That document lamented the unreadiness of state enterprises, which the Government can order to prepare for compliance with the law.

If there were any doubt about the importance of enforcing the procurement act, it should have been settled by the shenanigans of the THA in recent months. The new administration has run roughshod over established practices to build an ill-advised “stage in the sea,” while also taking shortcuts in procuring services for roads and road repairs.

The public procurement legislation, assented to in 2020 and acknowledged on all sides as deficient, is simply not being taken seriously.

Meanwhile, government spending continues without independent oversight and the controls and accountability guaranteed under the act.

The continued reluctance to proclaim this legislation fully does not sit well with the private sector, and should worry taxpayers,whose funds continue to be at risk of corrupt, or at best careless spending.

But as for the government, it appears to like it so.