The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Ministry of Finance’s top official yesterday said it had received “constructive” feedback on legislative reforms intended to transform the Government’s procurement processes.

Marlon Johnson, the acting financial secretary, told Tribune Business: “We are still going through them (consultation comments and feedback). We have gotten feedback from a few individuals and a few entities, and we are compiling them now and then we are going to put it back to the policymakers.”

The draft Public Procurement Bill 2019 seeks to complete the Government’s national procurement system, and establish a Public Procurement Department, with the ultimate objective of overhauling how the government conducts bidding for the provision of goods and services. It is designed to make the system more transparent and accountable, and deliver better value for money for Bahamian taxpayers.

Declining to provide details on the feedback received, Mr Johnson said: “They have been constructive. We got some feedback from some very conscientious observations. So it has gone as well as you would have expected in the consultations, with people giving feedback, and now we’re looking through it to see how we can refine it, take it on board and ensure that the policymakers can have the benefit all of the recommendations put forward.”

He added that efforts to create a National Statistical Office, together with the planned public procurement reforms, are part of the wider Public Financial Management and Performance Monitoring Reform project that is being financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

“Again that is one of the draft legislations we are working through presently that hasn’t gone out to consultation yet,” Mr Johnson said of the Statistical Office. “We are finalising the first initial draft, and that would happen within the next month or so. Then we would put that up for policy consideration, and then for public consultations. Moving ahead, it is satisfactory the speed we are making here.

“Some elements are going to be wrapped up in the next year or so, related to things like the Statistical Bill, and the procurement side will be substantively complete within a year to 18 months, and some of the other elements around the modernising of the accounting system as well as the underlying hardware and software, so there is varying timelines for completion.

“We are working assiduously to get it done, and I think the government has articulated its commitment to financial and fiscal reform, so a lot of these components are critical to making that happen and we are working hard to fulfil the government’s policy objectives.”