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Last Updated: Mar 19, 2021 - 4:59:51 PM |
2021 MID-TERM BUDGET & BILLS CONTRIBUTION By
Senator the Hon. Carl Bethel, QC
In the Senate on March 18, 2021
Madam President,
I rise to Move for the Second Reading and Committal of the Public Procurement Bill.
This Bill is a part of a Compendium of four (4) Bills which will radically transform not only the processes of public procurement, but also the role of the Ministry of Finance, itself. These Bills will provide a new economic architecture, consistent with international best practices, which will assure greater transparency, efficiency and fairness in public procurement, debt and financial management. Additionally, the Statistics Bill will, we trust, lead to the development of a truly science-based system of data collection and statistical analysis, which will produce more reliable GDP, health, sciences and socio-economic information, both to better inform the general public, but also to inform the decision-making process of the Central Government and, in particular, the Ministry of Finance.
The three (3) other Bills before the Senate today are:
The Public Debt Management Bill;
The Public Finance Management Bill; and
The Statistics Bill.
Madam President, the Public Procurement Bill seeks to modernize and to make public procurement more transparent, non-discriminatory, fair and efficient. A central Public Procurement Department is to be created in the Ministry of Finance, headed by a Chief Procurement Officer appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Public Service Commission. This Chief Procurement Officer must report directly to the Financial Secretary.
The Act will apply to all Procuring Entities, namely each Ministry or Department and any Public Body (defined as a statutory body or a government business enterprise that is in receipt of government funds for procurement purposes) as well as local government entities.
The Public Procurement Department must, among other things, implement policies and standards for public procuring, conduct centralized public procuring (for goods, services, tools and equipment generally used in every government ministry and department, such as paper, ink, toner, janitorial supplies, and so forth, by way of bulk purchases, develop and implement an electronic procurement system to allow for electronic advertising (RFPs), accepting bids electronically, setting up an electronic registry of all bids, which will allow for the electronic publication of all information which is required by the Act to be publicly disclosed – such as (Section 5(2)(d)) publishing a notice of the award of any procurement contract for goods or services in excess of $25,000.00.
A Public Procurement Board will also be established which will review all proposals or recommendations of a Tender Committee for any procurement valued in excess of $250,000.00 and under $1, 200,000.00; and to make recommendations to the Minister of Finance for the award of such a procurement contract.
..TO CONTINUE SEE ATTACHED
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