The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

SECURING procurement integrity must be two-fold with a specific process for resolution as well as any legislation having strong technical systems in place, says a governance reformer.

Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) executive director, told Tribune Business that securing the integrity of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) by creating a provision that allows public servants to have an “objection to direction” needs to have a two-fold approach, providing for a “specific process for resolution” in addition to “content” to the legislation.

Mr Aubry said: “There needs to be a very specific process for resolution and it has to be very clearly advertised and promoted, systems that can receive these things. They need to be confidential, they need to be understood to be insulated.”

The objection to direction clause is a provision in the PFMA that if a public officer feels as though they were given a direction that goes against the Act or any other legislation, there is now a legal process that empowers public servants to formally object.

 Signalling that insulating checks and balances in a small country like The Bahamas can become “problematic”, Mr Aubry said: “Everyone knows everyone is in a small country, so that means we need to work on a culture within our civil service of openness or accountability and transparency.

 “With that being the case you have to work on people’s historic training of being closed and that each job and each entity has to be handled quietly within each department. That ability to bring things across systems and into the open is a cultural change and that’s going to take some time.”

 The government of The Bahamas passed the Freedom of Information Act in 2017, however some critics have said that the legislation lacks teeth as several critical ingredients for making it a credible and enforceable piece of legislation is missing. For example, the Act lacks the selection process of the information commissioner, the scope of public authorities subject to the Act, and the long time limits for making information accessible.

 Mr Aubry said, however: “You need the capacity to also be supported from the very top. We saw just recently that in parliament that somebody who was bringing forward concerns related to procurement at the highest levels was named in parliament and their potential past job history was questioned. That deteriorates that type of culture. That goes exactly against what the point of objection to direction in the legislation is established for.”

 The system must be “trusted” and “consistent” to treat all individuals fairly, said Mr Aubry adding: “People need reassurance that this is the way to go. I think its twofold. I think it’s setting up the technical systems, appropriately relying upon technology to receive information, being confidential, setting up independent, trusted apolitical places to be able to receive the information, but then consistently and fairly applying these going forward, which will start to build a stronger culture of comfortability.”

 Understanding that the PFMA will be a continual work in progress that needs consistent updating as the months and years go by, Mr Aubry insisted that while the legislation is currently “in the works” and that the Ministry of Finance is “preparing and encouraging local firms to get involved and get registered on the public procurement platform,” he understands the government is in the process of determining specific regulations and processes.

He added: “Once they are established, how they are going to be promoted is going to be key. There has to be widespread promotion that is user friendly and accessible. This will go a long way.”

“There needs to be a reporting that something did happen and came to a successful resolution. That builds trust.”