MoF: Appointments for Procurement Regulator and Board to happen by end of 2017.
The Minister of Finance has taken note of repeated calls to the Government from various quarters to immediately implement the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act.
It is worth repeating that the Public Procurement Act cannot be implemented until the Office of Procurement Regulation is fully established. To achieve this, the Procurement Regulator and the Board of the Office of Procurement Regulation must first be appointed.
In addition, after the Regulator and Board are appointed, the Office of Procurement Regulation is required to prepare Regulations in accordance with the Act and recommend same to the Minister of Finance, who must then table these Regulations for debate and approval by both Houses of Parliament, in order to give full effect to the new public procurement system.
It must be made clear that Section 10 of the Act states that the Procurement Regulator and the Board are appointed by His Excellency the President in his discretion, after consultation with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
There is no point therefore, in persons and groups constantly demanding that the Government implement the Act immediately, since we must all wait until the Procurement Regulator and the Board of the Office of Procurement Regulation are appointed by His Excellency.
The Ministry is continuing to follow up on this matter with the Office of the President and we are hopeful that, barring unforeseen circumstances, the requisite appointments will be made by the end of 2017. However, it should be emphasised that the Government cannot exercise any control over this independent appointment process.
