President David Granger has extended by one year, the tenure of the two top officials at the Public Procurement Commission (PPC).
“Chairperson Carol Corbin and Vice Chair Nanda Gopaul, they have been given extensions,” Minister of State Dawn Hastings-Williams told Stabroek News yesterday. “We were always advocating for the PPC ever since we were in the opposition. And when we came into government, we ensured we put that [body] in place…realising and seeing the importance, we decided to extend the life of two of the commissioners,” she added.
She explained that at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Granger informed them of the decision and that the extension took effect from 25th October 2019.
Stabroek News reported on Sunday that the life of the current PPC expired on that day and despite the Constitution providing for two commissioners to be granted four-year terms to allow for transitioning, that had not happened. All the commissioners were given three year contracts in 2016.
Last Friday, during an interview, Corbin had told this newspaper that she believed that there was still time for the president to intervene and extend the tenure of the two commissioners.
The Constitutions provides that, “Subject to paragraph (2), members of the Commission shall be appointed for three years and shall be eligible for re-appointment, for one other term of office, not earlier than three years after the end of their first term. (2) Of those members first appointed, two shall hold office for four years.”
In 2016, more than 13 years after Guyana’s Constitution was amended to provide for the PPC and after much haggling between the PPP/C, when it was in government, and APNU and the AFC, the procurement oversight body was established.
Taking the oath of office were Corbin, Gopaul, Emily Dodson, Sukrishnalall Pasha and Ivor English.
The five would later choose Corbin, a former project management professional and accountant who has decades of experience working at the CARICOM Secretariat, as the Chairperson of the commission and in November 2016, they began operating.
