The National Assembly early Tuesday morning approved the appointment of members of the long-awaited Public Procurement Commission (PPC), almost 13 years after the enabling legislation was passed by the National Assembly.
A motion for the adoption of the report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the appointment of members to the Commission, moved by PAC Chairman Irfaan Ali, was passed with the support of both the government and opposition members of the House, who emphasised that it would ensure transparency and accountability in the tendering process.
Social Protection Minister Volda Lawrence further pointed out that the establishment of the Commission represented the fulfilment of another manifesto promise by the APNU+AFC government, albeit later than it had anticipated since its election last year May.
The members of the Commission are Emily Dodson, Carol Corbin, Sukrishnalall Pasha, Ivor B. English and Dr. Nanda K. Gopaul.
The other shortlisted candidates were Dr Balwant Persaud, Devan Khemraj, Brindley Horatio Robeson Benn, Cecil Jerrad Jacques, Lance Carberry, Dr. Anand Goolsarran and Christopher Ram.
Ali noted that there may have been many challenges in the area of public procurement and that these will always exist but it is important to recognise and congratulate “ourselves in the legislation, in the laws that govern public procurement in this country.”
He informed the House that Guyana is the only Caricom member state that undertook comprehensive procurement reform by amending its constitution. These reforms, he said, were based on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.
“Guyana is one of a few in the Caribbean with a procurement system that is well coordinated and guided by modern legislation dedicated to public procurement. Unlike other Caribbean member states, public procurement in Guyana is specifically addressed in the constitution,” he added.
Ali singled out the PAC support staff. “I think that we have an excellent clerk and support team that help the PAC and I want to say that they did a diligent job in managing the process, getting the advertisement out, pulling in the matrix, doing analysis for us and we must recognise their work at this historic moment,” he added.
He also recognised the work of all the previous Ministers of Finance and presidents who would have laid “the solid foundation” in relation to our financial architecture and the laws governing our procurement entity.”
He said that it must be recognised that “we have laid the foundation and are on the right track as it relates to procurement and the financial architecture of this country.”
Lawrence, meanwhile, gave an overview of the PPC and the work of the PAC. She said that the PPC Act was passed in 2003 and the PAC, then under the chairmanship of the late Winston Murray, immediately established a subcommittee to examine the nominees of the political parties in the National Assembly. She then proceeded to call the names of those nominated and said that they all worked for three years until the dissolution of the 8th Parliament.
She said that in the 9th Parliament, under her chairmanship, the PAC appointed Komal Chand and Murray to commence discussions in identifying nominees of the PPC. She said that it was during this time that Dodson’s name was submitted by the PNCR-1G to replace a member who had passed on.
“It must be noted that the Public Procurement Commission was placed on the notices of the Public Accounts Committee as an item for discussion at each of its meetings despite the fact that the then government did not present any nominees during those meetings,” she said.
She added that after 92 meetings of the PAC during this 9th Parliament, the nomination process was left as unfinished business at the end of the life of the Parliament.
In the 10th Parliament, political parties were written once more to provide nominees and an advertisement was placed in the media to allow members of the public to submit nominees. The committee also agreed to establish a subcommittee to examine the criteria to be used for selecting the nominees for the PPC. She then listed the members chosen, while adding that it was during the deliberations of this subcommittee the issue of gender was discussed.
Lawrence said that due to the subsequent dissolution of Parliament, the work of the committee “came to an end”. She said that with the coalition government taking office in 2015, Ali was elected chairman of the PAC and its members agreed to re-advertise for submission of nominees, and to seek advice from technical advisors regarding the understanding of the mechanisms of the commission in conjunction with the constitution. She said that a subcommittee, which included the Chairman, was established. Twenty-nine submissions, she said, were received by June 30th, 2016 and due diligence was sought for 12 of them.
She said that the report being presented by the House gives a clear outline of the deliberations which produced the final five nominees to the commission.
Lawrence told the House that the government is “proud, even though a few months late, to fulfill another of its manifesto promises.”
She said that all of Guyana wants to see transparency and accountability and particularly a level playing field in the tender process. “Today, we, all of us government and opposition, have brought an end to a journey which began some 13 years ago,” she said, while she singled out Murray for his role in the establishment of the Commission.
