Two months after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) completed deliberations on the terms of reference and remuneration for the top three officers to be employed by the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), the packages are still to be tabled in the National Assembly.
PAC Chairman Irfaan Ali told Stabroek News yesterday that the committee had submitted its recommendation to the PPC for comment but has received no feedback.
Stabroek News understands that among the recommendations is that the CEO be paid no more than $700,000 a month, while the Head of Corporate Services and Head of Operations were to be paid no more than $500,000 a month. These recommendations will be finalised via a vote on a motion moved in the House by the chairperson of the PAC. Ali has repeatedly told Stabroek News that he will move this motion after a recommendation from the PPC.
“The matter of the CEO of the PPC came to the committee and we dealt with it and sent a recommendation to the PPC some time ago and we haven’t heard anything since. We have to get a response to the recommendation from the PPC before we take it to the National Assembly,” he maintained yesterday.
Meanwhile, Chairperson of the PPC Carol Corbin has said that it is not for the commission to act on the PAC recommendation but for the committee to take it to the House.
“I don’t know what action I’m supposed to take. They still have to take the action. This is what they recommended and it is for them to take it to Parliament,” she explained, while adding that she had no comment on the packages offered. Corbin also declined to comment on whether the proposed officers, including the CEO, have provided any feedback on the offered packages.
Jamaican national Craig Beresford, who is currently Head of the Strategic Management Division of Caricom, has been is tipped to be the first CEO of the commission. Beresford, who acted briefly as Jamaica’s Contractor General, will assume the post if he wins parliamentary approval.
The PPC last year advertised the positions, while claiming that it would be unable to begin its work until these positions were filled.
Among the PPC’s key functions, according to the Procurement Act, are to monitor and review the functioning of all procurement systems to ensure that they are in accordance with the law, and monitor the performance of procurement bodies with respect to adherence to regulations and efficiency in procuring goods and services and execution of works.
