The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Opposition’s leader yesterday hit back at the Davis administration for “flat-out concealing” millions of dollars in contracts it has concluded since taking office by failing to comply with the Public Procurement Act.

Michael Pintard, the Marco City MP and former Cabinet minister, accused the Prime Minister of applying “different sets of rules for others than what he is prepared to abide by himself” when it comes to good governance and transparency and accountability in public life.

Speaking after Philip Davis QC blasted the Minnis administration’s $53m COVID-19 food assistance initiative for poor record-keeping and inadequate controls over how taxpayer monies are used, the Opposition’s leader sought to turn the tables by renewing his assertion that the Prime Minister has “flat-out refused to comply” with the legal requirements of a law that came into force just 15 days before the September 16, 2021, general election.

“Our position is simply that the Government is determined not to follow the law, and in a few instances with the compendium of financial legislation where they have followed it, it is at their own pace and on their own terms,” Mr Pintard blasted. “I would only say on the record, listening to the Prime Minister, that he has a different set of rules for others than what he is prepared to abide by himself.

“He is unprepared to remove the veil of secrecy because of his unwillingness to comply with the Public Procurement Act and reveal what contracts they have entered into since coming into the Government. He has flat-out refused to comply..... When it comes to removing the veil of secrecy he is woefully lacking and has fallen short.

“They are flat-out concealing who they are entering into business with, the size of the contracts, duration of the contracts they are issuing and, in some cases, they have to end existing contracts to enter into new ones. With whom, for what amounts and for what length of time? These are things they are obliged to tell the Bahamian people.”

This is not the first time that Mr Pintard has challenged the Davis administration’s compliance with this law. Under the Act, all, government ministries, departments, agencies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are mandated to release information on all government contracts “within 60 days” of their award to the successful bidder. This means all contracts awarded between September 1, 2021, and March 18, 2022, should have been publicly disclosed by now.

This, though, has yet to happen with government officials, including Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, asserting that the failure to create, advertise and fill the post of chief procurement officer makes it impossible to implement the Act and its disclosure requirements because the legislation revolves around that person’s functioning.

However, section 61 of the Public Procurement Act seemingly places the burden on the “procuring entity”, not the chief procurement officer, to “publish within 60 days of the award of the procurement contract, a notice of the award of the procurement contract”.

This must include the winning bidder’s name and address; contract amount; bid title; name of the procuring entity; and bidding method used. The “within 60 days” timeframe, and Act’s implementation on September 1, means that the Government is seemingly in violation of the requirement to publish all contract awards between September 1 and March 18.

Mr Pintard, accusing the Prime Minister and his administration of double standards by attacking the Minnis government for lack of transparency and good governance when they were guilty of the same sins, argued: “What makes this more egregious is they are doing so at a time when they are talking about the omissions and gaps in the last administration. Now they are in the driver’s seat, what are they doing so that they have the moral authority to talk about these matters?”

The Public Procurement Act was intended to shine the light of transparency and accountability across the award of all public sector contracts, thus improving taxpayer value for money and reducing fraud, wastage and corruption by making it much harder for lucrative deals to be awarded to friends, family members, lovers and political cronies of the major parties.

It was also supposed to improve procurement efficiency by having all bids and contract awards handled through a centralised e-procurement supplier registry, with all companies interested in bidding registering with this portal. However, Daniel Ferguson, who headed the portal’s set-up before becoming a whistleblower critical of its roll-out, repeatedly voiced concern about the lack of agency buy-in and training plus shortages of human capital expertise.

And, upon coming to office, the Davis administration has frequently complained that the Public Procurement Act was passed into by the former government without any of the regulations, rules, guidelines and other supporting infrastructure to make it workable. It has also asserted that the law has mired government procurement in bureaucracy and red tape, complicating simple contract awards and making them more costly.

Senator Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, told Tribune Business in a voice note: “If you look at this Procurement Act, there’s a myriad of things that have to be put in place before this was enacted. As a matter of fact, this law was enacted without any of the foundational pieces which we are now putting in place.”

Mr Pintard’s comments came as Tribune Business yesterday queried whether the Government is in breach of the Public Financial Management Act by failing to publish the reports on its Budget performance for the first nine months of the 2021-2022 fiscal year as well as its public debt composition.

The Government’s own Budget website states that the Public Debt Management Act’s section 61 mandates that the Ministry of Finance’s debt management office is mandated, by law, to publish the quarterly Public Debt Statistical Bulletin “no later than 30 days after the end of each quarter of the fiscal year”.

Given that the third quarter of the 2021-2022 fiscal year ended on March 31, that report should have been released by April 30. The same deadline applies to the Budget performance report, but neither document has been made publicly available and it is now May 17. Mr Wilson could not be reached for comment on the matter while Clint Watson, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, promised to look into the matter and call back. No call was received before press time.

Many voters, given the assertions and allegations flying back and forth over the National Food Distribution Task Force and Public Procurement Act, are likely to conclude that neither party is better than the other when it comes to transparency and accountability.