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”.