On Thursday, the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) met with the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), at the commission’s Secretariat, to discuss matters concerning the public procurement process, functions and roles of the respective bodies.
This is according to a release on Friday from the PPC. The PPC has come in for criticism for not appearing to discharge vital functions since it was constituted in July last year.
The PPC release said that the discussions centred around the functioning of the NPTAB as it relates to:
• Adherence to the Procurement Act, Cap. 75:03,
• Constraints and difficulties experienced,
• Pool of Evaluators,
• Publication of tenders and contract awards, and
• Thresholds.
Execution of S. 17(2) of the Procurement Act, Cap. 73:05 in the absence of the PPC.
Debarment and other matters were also discussed.
The release said that the meeting was attended by the full complement of the PPC and NPTAB: Pauline Chase, Chairperson of the PPC; Berkley Wickham, Deputy Chairperson and Commissioners Dianna Rajcumar, Rajnarine Singh and Joel Bhagwandin together with Michael Singh, Chief Executive Officer.
The NPTAB was represented at the meeting by Dr Tarachand Balgobin, Chairperson and Board Members, Bernard Lord, Desmond Mohamed, Omar Narine, Steve Ninvalle, Mark Conway and Gloria Beharry together with Arvind Parag, Chief Executive Officer.
As mandated by Art 212AA(1) of the constitution of Guyana and enabled by S.17(2) of the Procurement Act, Cap. 73:05, the release noted that the PPC is required to report annually to the Minister of Finance on the effectiveness of the procurement processes and recommend any amendments to the Act which may be necessary to improve the effectiveness of the procurement process.
“The PPC looks forward to and intends to further engage NPTAB as well as other stakeholders in the execution of its mandate and functions”, the release said.
