We agree with Planning and Sustainable Development Minister, Dr Bhoe Tewarie, that the passage of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Bill in the Senate on Tuesday should not go unnoticed as a major achievement of the current administration.
Our praise would have been more fulsome, however, if this had occurred sooner and taken into consideration all the justifiable positions of both the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) and the Opposition PNM which failed to support it.
The Bill was passed in the Senate with the Opposition abstaining after having voted for it the first time around. Given the myriad claims against the Government over issues of procurement, including Minister Tewarie's handling of procurement proposals for Invader's Bay, it was unfortunate the Bill was allowed to lapse after being debated the first time. With its eventual passage Tuesday, there is very little likelihood of it coming into law before the PP completes its first term.
Based on the Minister's own admission, it will take approximately six months before it is ready for presidential assent, and there are several measures which need to put in place including training and the drafting of the necessary regulations.
Both the PP and the PNM have been criticised over their cavalier approach to procurement issues and there is merit to the position adopted by the JCC that neither was serious enough about the legislation. The PNM cannot be excused for taking one position when the Bill first came to the Senate and got the support of the Opposition Senators and another when it got to House of Representatives and its MPs did an about turn.
While it cannot be expected that any House of Parliament should be a rubber stamp for the other, the position taken by the PNM in the Lower House was so at variance with arguments in the Senate that one was left to wonder whether the party caucused at all or it had fallen prey to the rampant individualism which dominated the legislature prior to advent of party politics with the PNM's victory in the1956.
Both Government and Opposition have for some time recognised the need for the replacement of the Central Tenders Board and the introduction of some kind of modern procurement legislation. In fact the PNM was said to have started working on just such a bill since 2005.This is all the more reason why, given the procurement issues that have bedevilled both administrations, common ground should have been more easy to find.
The passage of the procurement bill on Tuesday and the fact that it has been long promised by both the Government and the Opposition must be seen as a genuine step in bringing us closer to good governance.At long last we have a compromise bill that should bring greater transparency.Still, Government needs to be firm in ensuring that the Act quickly becomes law by implementation of the requisite regulations and that the recruitment of staff is expedited and above board.