A former Jamaica Contractor General is tipped to be the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), according to well-placed sources.
His name has been submitted to parliament for approval.
(Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story had incorrectly named the candidate.)
The PPC which is getting ready to take control of the procurement process, thereby ending Cabinet’s role in greenlighting contracts, last year advertised the CEO position and several others. The PPC had said that it would be unable to begin its work until these positions were filled.
On Tuesday, PPC Chairman Carol Corbin told Stabroek News that recommendations had been made to fill the top three positions for the PPC. The posts are the CEO, Head of Corporate Services and Head of Operations.
“We have interviewed and we have made our recommendations and would submit them to Parliament and it would be up to Parliament,” Corbin said when contacted by Stabroek News on the issue. Corbin said the PPC members would have shortlisted the individuals, conducted interviews and then recommended the persons they believe to be best suited for the positions.
Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran who had applied for the post of CEO of the PPC yesterday expressed surprise that his application for the position had not even been acknowledged by the PPC. He said that he had read in Stabroek News on Wednesday that a selection had been made and he was disappointed that he wasn’t afforded an interview. Goolsarran said his qualifications and work experience would surely have warranted consideration during the evaluation process.
He said he had submitted his application in December and had written to Corbin seeking clarification on whether he would be considered for the post having not heard from the PPC.
Goolsarran noted that he had also been sidelined from consideration as a commissioner of the PPC on the grounds that he had been doing forensic audits for the state. Goolsarran pointed out that he did four audits in 2015 and all the reports were issued in 2015, long before the process for the PPC commissioners was initiated.
The former Auditor General said he had also applied for the post of Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit and had been declined for consideration as it was said that he was a Politically Exposed Person (someone who has been entrusted with a prominent public function).
More than 13 years after Guyana’s Constitution was amended to provide for the PPC and after much haggling between the PPP/Civic, when it was in government and the current APNU+AFC administration, the oversight body was established in October last year.
Former labour minister Nanda Kishore Gopaul is the PPC’s vice-chairman and the other three members are attorney Emily Dodson, accountant Sukrishnalall Pasha and educator Ivor English.
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 such policy guidelines as may be determined by the National Assembly; promote awareness of the rules, procedures and special requirements of the procurement process among suppliers, constructors and public bodies; safeguard the national interest in public procurement matters, having due regard to any international obligations; monitor the performance of procurement bodies with respect to adherence to regulations and efficiency in procuring goods and services and execution of works; approve of procedures for public procurement, disseminate rules and procedures for public procurement and recommend modifications thereto to the public procurement entities.”
