The Public Procurement Commission (PPC) will from today begin shortlisting applicants for three key posts as it prepares to commence work next month.
“We had advertised and applications were received and closed. From tomorrow, we will start reviewing those applications and then shortlisting and interviewing for those three positions, which has to be approved by parliament,” Chairman of the PPC Carol Corbin told Stabroek News yesterday.
The three jobs advertised are Chief Executive Officer, Head of Corporate Services and a Head of Operations. Corbin has said other vacancies will also be soon advertised.
She promised that the procurement oversight body will ensure a strict, transparent system that ensures accountability in every area the commission is responsible for.
The PPC Chairman returned to the country recently and she spent yesterday in meetings with Chairman of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), Berkley Wickham discussing the workings of the entities.
Corbin explained that since NPTAB has over the decades been the procurement oversight body in the PPC’s absence, her commission is allowing a smooth transition process.
“Remember the tender board was carrying out duties in the interim, until the PPC was established so we have to also work out that transition that they were carrying out, on our behalf. It is not as cut and dry as ‘today we are established and tomorrow we stop with them’ because things are ongoing. It is a transition period,” Corbin asserted.
“For example, the NPTAB is involved in training and that is something we are responsible for…so there is training going on right now. I was discussing that issue with him (Wickham) to see what is in place, what is the timeline and so on, so that that we could in a seamless way execute our functions without hampering what they were doing. We have to see what they have been doing…they have plans up to February of next year that were already started, agreements in place and so forth. What we will now do is get involved, see who is being trained, see what the programmes are achieving and then pick up. That is, we will determine what is needed,” she added.
No place has yet been found where the PPC will be headquartered as Corbin informed that they were still scouting for an office to rent. We are still at Parliament but what we are doing is looking at places, we started looking at places.
And with the Bid Protest Committee still deliberating over a protest by the Demerara Distillers Limited over the award of the contract for the distribution of juices for government’s school feeding programme, Corbin says that the PPC will wait until that process is completed.
“With regard to the Bid Protest Committee, whatever is before them, for example the juice contract that is still with them and being reviewed they will have to complete that. But I have confirmed with the tender board chairman that matter (the juice contract) is still being reviewed by them and they have not concluded it as yet but any new matters will come to us and then we will start our relationship with the Bid Protest Committee,” The PPC Chairman explained.
Questions have also been raised about Cabinet’s recent announcement of contract awards and the PPC Chairman explained that those contracts were not completed by Cabinet.
“They had not completed, as far as I am aware. What you have to remember is that we won’t be monitoring awards. What the constitution says, in two parts, is that the Public Procurement Commission may work with Cabinet to gradually amend the threshold of contracts that are approved. It also says that once we are established Cabinet will no longer give the no-objection. So it is something transitional.
Asked when Cabinet will cease its no- objections she said that she “cannot really give a specific date” but that the law explains the processes.
“When you look at the law the law says two things; that the PPC will work with Cabinet to gradually phase out the no objection and it also says once we are established. So there is an interpretation there that there could be a period of transition of them giving no- objections,” Corbin said pointing out that while there is the five-member commission the three key personnel have not yet been found by the commission.
But with minor setbacks, Corbin is excited to begin working in in her capacity as Chairman of the PPC.
She said, “I am very enthusiastic about it. It is nothing different. I have headed my programme area at Caricom. I have been in senior positions for a very long time, so it is nothing new to me. It is different in a way because we will have to interact with all the ministries, all the procuring entities, and have to deal with all the accounting officers which will be somewhat of a change process for them. People tend to resist change.”
A smiling and confident Corbin added that while much reading and knowledge of the law as it pertains to procurement, will be required in her post she was ready to take on the responsibility. “I love reading … I am ready for this job. I am very comfortable and very ready,” she asserted.
