The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Jermaine Figueira yesterday berated government Chief Whip and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Gail Teixeira over the delay in agreeing on the five candidates for the new Public Procurement Commission (PPC)
Figueira and Teixeira comprise the PAC subcommittee which has been deliberating for the last six months on the names which will require two-thirds support in Parliament. The life of the last PPC expired in October, 2020. The body is crucial to upholding rectitude in the procurement process particularly considering the billions in contracts that are being awarded by government agencies.
At the PAC meeting yesterday, Figueira said “Let me make it abundantly clear to this Committee that I have made strenuous efforts on numerous occasions to make contact with Madam Teixeira so that we can bring this issue to finality. Many calls were unanswered, many texts were answered late and those proposed meetings could not have been met”.
Teixeira, however, argued that since the subcommittee’s last meeting on December 10, the two left with the understanding that both sides will have to consult with their principals on arriving at an agreement on their representatives. She stated that since that meeting there was no communication on if that was done.
“The setting up of the subcommittee was to not only to expedite the process but also recognise that this decision requires two-thirds of the House… Figueira and I had a relationship of sharing information on what his side felt and I didn’t know that his side had a preference for anybody,” Teixeira told the meeting via Zoom.
She said that while she recognizes the importance of the PPC and is proud of its work, it is important that the names proposed receive the requisite support when they are forwarded to the National Assembly as in the past members have withdrawn their support. On this note she said it is necessary they go through the mechanisms and select the right names.
The Chief Whip also posited the possible need for further consultation by Figueira with the recently elected leadership of the PNCR.
But she was quickly upbraided by the Chairman for the remark as he posited that the internal affairs of the major party in the APNU+AFC coalition should not be of any interest to her. He declared that it is time for the PAC to bring the matter to finality.
“The Opposition is ready for this to be set up, and I strongly believe that the Government is pussyfooting around the issue and it is time we bring this to finality and stop grandstanding around what is happening in the affairs of the PNC—that is not the government’s business. We are here at the Public Accounts Committee to bring finality to the issue of appointing the Commis-sioners to sit on the Public Procurement Commission, what the Opposition decides is the Opposition’s business”, Figueira said emphatically. But Teixeira responded by saying that her comments were mere thoughts.
Opposition Members of the PAC have made it clear that they have had it with the delays in identifying the new commissioners and are hopeful that by next Monday the five names can be submitted to the full committee.
Opposition Member Ganesh Mahipaul urged that the names come swiftly to the full committee for deliberations and selection.
“I do not support another delay further than this week. We have been here for too long. The subcommittee had six months to provide us with five names of persons qualified to sit as commissioners but it has been long enough in fact too long… let us move the process forward…” he declared.
Government member, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill argued against the proposal saying that the subcommittee must be able to do its work as mandated.
“That is backroom work, why are we doing this in committee today? I would like to recommend that the subcommittee does its work out of the public’s eye…” Edghill posited, even as he stated that “It is kind of baffling and worrisome that the country is calling for the establishment of the Public Pro-curement Commission and we seem to be lagging in my view… I want to disassociate myself from any attempt to stymie the establishment of the PPC.”
Opposition Member Juretha Fernandes also echoed disapproval of the delay in naming the commissioners.
“There is a concern on the lack of transparency in the procurement process. We cannot continue to delay the establishment of this commission… We cannot continue to hear excuses,” she emphasised.
Several months ago, former PPC Chairwoman Carol Corbin voiced her concern that crucial reform work done could be at risk if the body was not reconstituted quickly.
It is unclear if there have been protests from bidders over contract awards made last year as it was the PPC that would have informed on the number of cases it had received.
In October 2016, and more than 13 years after Guyana’s Constitution was amended to provide for the PPC, the procurement oversight body was established. Corbin, Sukrishnalall Pasha, Emily Dodson, Ivor English and former Minister of Labour, Nanda Kishore Gopaul, were the first commissioners.
