Proclaim Procurement Act

The JCC once again feels compelled to alert the public that there is ongoing procrastination by the Government (GOTT) with respect to the full proclamation Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act (PPDPPA) of 2015. The 3rd Amendment of The Act was brought by the Government in 2020 and was assented to by the President of the Republic on December 27th, 2020. The next step in the process was the amendment of the Regulations to bring it in line with the amended PPDPPA. The Original Draft of the PPDPP Regulations, 2019 can still be found on the OPR’s Website. (https://oprtt.org/).

The JCC is aware however that the Amended Draft Regulations were supplied by the OPR to the Legislative Review Committee (LRC) and Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Jan 25th, 2021, after formal meetings between their respective legal teams. A response to the Amended Regulations from the Ministry of Finance is still outstanding to date. It is over five months since The Amended Regulations were submitted by the OPR.

Even after a review/response from the MoF is forthcoming; a review by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel (CPC) has to be carried out before Cabinet can deliberate on its recommendations. Only then can the Amended PPDPP Regulations be laid in Parliament.

What this means for the public is that the operationalization of the Office of the Procurement Regulator remains glaringly outstanding in March of 2021. In the meantime Public Bodies continue to operate spending public funds without independent oversight by the OPR. In these very lean economic times, this procrastination by the GOTT continues to be a travesty for the citizens of this country.

The JCC therefore respectfully requests that the Attorney General and/or Minister of Finance please advise the public as to when we can expect to see the full proclamation of the legislation and actual operationalization of The Office of the Procurement Regulator.