(Jamaica Observer) The rigidly enforced zero tolerance policy of the Office of the Contractor General (OCG), which was first introduced in October 2006 to rein in public bodies which were refusing to comply with the lawful requisitions of the OCG, has now succeeded in producing another record 100 per cent compliance rate.
This was done for 12 consecutive quarters running, the OCG said in a news release.
All 193 public bodies whose contract award activities are currently being monitored by the OCG, were declared fully compliant in filing their 2011 fourth quarter contract award reports to the OCG by the stipulated deadline date of last Wednesday, February 1.
“Before the institution of the policy, which calls for the mandatory referral of delinquent public bodies to the Director of Public Prosecutions for criminal prosecution, the highest public body compliance rate that was ever recorded by the OCG was 13 per cent,” the OCG said.
No exception to the application of the policy has ever been allowed by the contractor general in the more than five years that the policy has been in force, it said.
This report regime was conceived, designed and implemented in May 2006 by Contractor General, Greg Christie, as a major plank of his strategic plan to secure a marked improvement in regulatory compliance, probity, accountability and transparency in the Government’s small contracts award process.
“Today, the regime has, among other things, allowed the OCG to make public, on its website, the award particulars of over 57,000 contracts that have so far been awarded by the country’s public bodies since May 1, 2006. The contracts, which range in value from J$250,000 to J$10 million, have an aggregated value of more than J$70 billion,” the OCG said.
Government contracts that are in excess of J$10 million in value must be first endorsed by the National Contracts Commission and the particulars of all such contracts, going back to June 2000, are also reported on the OCG’s website at www.ocg.gov.jm .
