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Status of PUBLIC PROCUREMENT & DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC PROPERTY REGULATIONS
JCC SEEKS INFORMATION: Further to the President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago assenting to the latest Amendment to the Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act on December 27th, 2021, the JCC wrote to enquire as to the status of the PUBLIC PROCUREMENT & DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC PROPERTY REGULATIONS, 2019. “Please advise if the 2019 version of the Regulations on the OPR Website needs to be amended, based on the aforementioned latest amendments to The Act, and also indicate if: 1. Said amendments to the Regulations have already been completed by the OPR or what is your target for this. 2. The amended Regulations have been sent to the Ministry of Finance or elsewhere 3. There has been any response or mutual agreement to said Regulations from the MoF 4. The OPR has a sense of when the final draft of the Regulations will be laid in Parliament.
We look forward to your response as we continue to lobby for the full proclamation of the PDPPA and operationalization of The Office of the Procurement Regulation.”
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: “An official response of the OPR will be sent under official cover, however to address your concerns in the interim, please be advised that the OPR’s Legal Team , continues to actively review the draft Regulations with a view to not only determine whether additional amendments to the draft regulations need to be made pursuant to the amendments to the parent act, but also to determine whether the draft Regulations may be improved and simplified further. The internal legal team met today, and our target for completion of the same is January 22, 2021.
In this respect, in short, the answer to items ii, iii and iv is no.
The amended regulations have not been re-submitted to the Ministry of Finance or elsewhere.
There has been no further discussion, response or mutual agreement to said regulations by the Ministry of Finance.
Lastly, the OPR is unable to provide guidance on when the draft of the regulations will be laid in Parliament as this item has not yet been fully ventilated at the Legislative Review Committee of Cabinet or by the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, and so has not yet completed those stages in the process, for the draft regulations to be laid before the Parliament.
I trust that my interim response satisfactorily addresses the concerns raised. The OPR thanks the JCC for its continued support in lobbying for the full proclamation of the Act.”