The government yesterday passed long-awaited amen-dments to the 2003 Procurement Act that will ensure that small businesses are given at least 20 per cent of all state contracts.
The Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2019 will become law when signed by President David Granger. The passage of the amendments paves the way for local small contractors to benefit from 20 per cent of all state procurement. It also provides for a register of all bidders, and mandates procurement entities to submit procurement plans for each fiscal year. It also provides clarity to Section 26 of the Act.
Although the Small Business Act of 2004 provides for at least 20 per cent of all contracts required annually by the government to be obtained by small business, Public Procurement Commission (PPC) Chairperson Carol Corbin had pointed out that the Procurement Act needed to be changed to allow for this.
“It is in the Small Business Act but not in the Procurement Act. The Procurement Act is the principal act that governs procurement and which guides procuring entities,” Corbin had told Stabroek News. “There is nothing wrong with giving preferential treatment…many other jurisdictions do it but it is in their Act —South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad and other places…We have done the research…but it must be in the law. The opinion of the PPC is that the Procurement Act must be amended before this can be implemented properly,” she had said.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, in whose name the amendments were tabled, yesterday hailed the passage of the Bill. “It is…consistent not only with transparency and accountability and all the other known virtues but…it works in the best interest for Guyana,” Jordan said.
“In the absence of local content law, a strong procurement legislation acts as a good indicator,” he added.
He also indicated that government will repeal the current procurement legislation. Referring to a Stabroek News article when the Act was first passed in 2003, Jordan lamented the reports of how the Bill was “rushed through Parliament” and the many objections raised by his party, then in opposition, testament he said, for the many amendments made since then.
He pointed out that government had also brought in a consultant to assist with an analysis and possible recommendations for the Act, but so dismal were his findings that he recommended that the Act be repealed.
“We brought in the consultant to look at the Act to see where we can improve on it to bring it up to modern practices. What the consultant said was that there were so many areas to be improved upon and so many areas to be added that it would be unwise to tamper with the Act. The suggestion is that we repeal the Act of 2003 and bring in a new Act that would take account of all the new additions and so forth,” Jordan told the House.
In the interim, he said that government has to deal with what he called “the low hanging fruits” while they await the Ministry of Legal Affairs as it relates to the recommendations made.
