The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday asserted there was "never any sort of desire or intention to circumvent" the Public Procurement Act's requirements as he blamed any non-compliance on the need to put in place supporting infrastructure.

Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, said that Davis administration has had to ensure public officials are fully trained and equipped to implement the Act's legally-mandated requirements. It has also had to appoint a chief procurement officer, and implement the necessary software.

The Government has previously come under fire for failing to meet stipulations, set out both in the initial Act and the one that replaced it, requiring that the identities of winning bidders, the nature of the contract, and its value all be published within 60 days of the award. This has not happened in two years, despite promises that these details would be published. However, some information has been made available via the Go Bonfire procurement portal.

“In order to really effect it, there was a large infrastructure that had to be put in place at the back end of it," Mr Halkitis said of the Act. "For example, the appointment of a chief procurement officer, the training of procurement committees in not only the Ministry of Finance, but in every single ministry and government agency. We're talking about IT, acquiring the IT and getting people trained up on it, and so that is what we have been doing for the last, you know, 18 months.

“We are at a position right now where we have just about completed the training. And there are some of the contracts that have to be uploaded. We think we are almost at a position where those are completed. So, you know, we will begin to do that. We can look for that in the coming weeks.”

Mr Halkitis added: “But I would just like to say this now. [There] never was any sort of desire or intention to circumvent but, you know, it's very, very easy to go into Parliament and pass a law and say we're doing this and doing that. You know, we see a number of pieces of legislation where we have to go back now.

“At the back end of it, there are a lot of requirements that we had to do. So the public will see that very shortly. We're committed to doing it, those few agencies that have not fully uploaded. We have people working on that now to get that done as soon as possible. So you'll see that shortly…definitely before the end of the year.”