The appointment of commissioners for the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) now lies with the government as the Public Accounts Committee awaits the naming of their representatives, Chairman of the committee Jermaine Figueira said.
In a brief conversation with this newspaper, Figueira said his side of the house has already identified their representatives on the commission and are now waiting on the PPP/C to name their nominees.
Government’s Chief Whip and Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira, yesterday told Stabroek News that her side of the house has not concluded discussions and that they are in the process of sharing names.
Stabroek News understands that on the PPP/C side, three names were added to a shortlist of eight names.
Figueira noted that his efforts to contact Teixeira in a bid to bring the process to a closure have so far proven futile.
Figueira and Teixeira together comprise a sub-committee tasked with shortlisting candidates for the five-member Commission.
The commission members were expected to be named earlier this month but that was not done as both sides of the House were in discussions regarding the selection of representatives for the commission.
Figueira emphasised that the establishment of the commission was of the utmost importance to him and the other opposition members and he committed to bringing the matter to finality by naming the nominees by the end of this year.
“Multibillion-dollar contracts have been given out by Cabinet and the role of the PPC is to play a pivotal role with respect to contracts being distributed. Aggrieved contractors can go and make their concerns be known. So, the perception out there is corruption is afoot with regards to a lot of these multi-billion dollar contracts that the government has been awarding. So, the onus is upon us to act and we believe in our actions to get this PPC would be the most important thing,” he asserted.
Several months ago, former PPC Chairwoman Carol Corbin voiced her concern that crucial reform work done could be at risk if the body was not reconstituted.
The life of the five-member commission ended last year October.
Corbin posited that the body was too important to have the process stalled over political sparring and expressed fears that money invested by the Inter-American Development Bank along with the human resource work put in will all go to waste.
It is unclear if there have been protests from bidders this year as it was the PPC that would have informed on the number of cases it had received. It is also unclear what transitioning process will be allowed for when the National Assembly chooses the next five commissioners.
The Constitution provides that, “Subject to paragraph (2), members of the Commission shall be appointed for three years and shall be eligible for re-appointment, for one other term of office, not earlier than three years after the end of their first term. (2) Of those members first appointed, two shall hold office for four years.
It is the President who appoints the commissioners after the process of selection and approval by the National Assembly.
In October 2016, and more than 13 years after Guyana’s Constitution was amended to provide for the PPC, the procurement oversight body was established.
Corbin, Sukrishnalall Pasha, Emily Dodson, Ivor English, and former Minister of Labour Nanda Kishore Gopaul, were the first commissioners.
