The Public Accounts Committee is set to meet next week to consider names of persons who will be appointed to the next Public Procurement Commission.
Members of the PPC are nominated by the Public Accounts Committee.
The Public Procurement Commission monitors and reviews the functioning of all public procurement systems to ensure that those systems are in accordance with the laws of Guyana, as well as investigate cases of irregularity and mismanagement in the public procurement process.
The body has not been in place since the PPP administration took office over a year ago.
The government has been harshly criticized and threatened with legal action over its failure to reconstitute the Commission while dolling out scores of multi-million dollar contracts.
During today’s meeting of the Public Accounts Committee, the Opposition again expressed disgust over the slothful manner in which the government is moving to establish the Public Procurement Commission.
“This is a national issue and a lot of Guyanese have been articulating their disappointment that this Commission has not yet been operationalized and we are hoping that we could bring some finality before the year concludes,” PAC Chairman Jermaine Figueira said.
Mr. Figueira said the non-establishment of the Procurement Commission has some contractors uneasy since there is no authority in place for them to express their concerns about government contracts.
He said such an arrangement cannot be allowed to continue since it is openly flouting the laws of Guyana.
“Multibillion-dollar contracts have been given out by Cabinet and the role of the PPC is to play a pivotal role with respect to contracts being distributed. Aggrieved contractors can go and make their concerns be known. So, the perception out there is corruption is afoot with regards to a lot of these multi-billion dollars contracts that the Government has been awarding, so, the onus is upon us to act and we believe in our actions to get this PPC would be the most important thing” Figueira noted.
Several contractors have taken to the press in recent weeks to express their disgust at the manner in which government contracts are being handled, accusing the government of dolling out multimillion-dollar contracts to persons closely aligned to the administration.
With the Government and Opposition set to meet next week to begin the process of shortlisting names, it is hoped that the process can be completed soon and the Procurement Commission put in place before the end of the year.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login