The Tribune

• Warns full compliance ‘going to take some time’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s chief procurement official yesterday disclosed that the frequency of contract award reporting will ultimately increase to every 60 days, adding that full compliance is “going to take some time”.

Carl Oliver, the acting chief procurement officer, told Tribune Business that the increased openness and transparency created by the current Public Procurement Act and its predecessor requires “a change of mindset” that all ministries, departments and agencies are still adapting to.

Pointing out that there was zero mandated reporting of government contracts to the Bahamian people prior to the first Act’s implementation on September 1, 2021, he conceded that there were “some little challenges” in getting all agencies to use the Go Bonfire online portal for the launch, bidding process and awarding of procurement deals.

Speaking as Michael Pintard, the Opposition’s leader, slammed the Davis administration’s initial disclosures as “half-baked and incomplete” (see other article on Page 1B), Mr Oliver told this newspaper that all parts of government are “on board” with the need to comply with the Act and new procurement system. He added that it was now critical to increase training so that all agencies and relevant staff know what to do.

The Government, at around 10pm on Sunday night, finally released its long-promised public procurement disclosure that revealed the awarding of 843 contracts worth a total $140m via its online portal over the ten months to end-June 2023.

However, contracts from just 31 so-called “procurement entities”, meaning government ministries, departments and agencies, were included among the $139.551m. And, of the 843 contracts awarded, some 258 or more than one-quarter came from the Department of Public Works, with the Ministry of Finance accounting for another 193 and Department of Environmental Health Services (DEHS) some 76.

Critics, especially the Free National Movement (FNM), yesterday attacked the disclosure on multiple grounds. They pointed out that it only covers the ten-month period from September 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, thus ignoring the entire year after the first Public Procurement Act was implemented on September 1, 2021.

“I’m glad they did it,” one source said of Sunday night’s publication. “That is still not the report required by law. And they cannot ignore the old Act. They are still bound to provide the information under the old Act. It doesn’t go away. The previous 12 months due under the law that was in effect. That doesn’t go away. They [the Government] cannot wave that away.”

The source added that, under the new Public Procurement Act 2023, “all” contracts issued by “public bodies” are supposed to be itemised in an annual report that is scheduled to be prepared by the acting chief procurement officer before April 1 each year. 

While this deadline was missed, they added that the definition of “public bodies” includes state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as the National Insurance Board (NIB), Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA), Water & Sewerage Corporation and Bahamasair. Not a single contract issued by any of these entities featured in Sunday’s report even though they get hundreds of millions from taxpayers per annum.

The new Act’s section 57 also requires the Government, within 60 days of a contract award, to publish specific information on the bid. While Sunday’s report included the project title, name of the procuring entity, selection method, identity of the winning bidder and contract’s value, it did not give the lawfully required “brief description of the scope of the contract”, including its location, and the winning bidder’s address.

Mr Oliver, who is also the Ministry of Finance’s deputy director of economic planning, yesterday confirmed to Tribune Business that the information released at the weekend features all contracts awarded via the Go Bonfire platform over that ten-month period. He indicated the report should be assessed and understood in its proper context, and that it was not the annual report referred to in the Act.

Not commenting on any contracts awarded outside the online procurement portal, he said: “It’s the first time we have released a report on information recorded in the system. I have no doubt that we’ll continue to report more frequently as we increase the amount of staffing in government agencies and the Public Procurement Department.”

When asked about the ultimate reporting frequency goal, Mr Oliver replied that the Government will be “reporting every 60 days” in accordance with the Act. He added that the Procurement Department itself needed to add a further four to five staff to build a full complement, all being persons “with a first degree”.

“According to the Act, the Act says every 60 days we should be publishing information on contract awards, and we have to fall within the requirements of the Act,” Mr Oliver said. “Minister Halkitis would have spoken to this last week. He would have mentioned it’s a movement from the status quo.

“In the past, we were not reporting any contract awards to vendors, and which government agencies were awarding the contracts. It’s a change of mindset now. Wen have to work with government agencies to ensure we move away from what we were doing in the past and comply with the Act. But it’s going to take some time. This is the first step.

“We’re working towards it. They all would have received training in the application of Bonfire..... The infrastructure is in place, but the issue we’re having some little challenges with is getting everybody up to the level of using it. Some agencies are more advanced than others in terms of having comprehension in how this works,” Mr Oliver added.

“We’re working with all government agencies to ensure the level of training is equal for all who are using the application. Training is ongoing and we are pleased with the way it is going. There seems to be an interest from all government agencies. They’re all on board. It’s just a matter of us increasing the training.”

Mr Oliver said the Government is now “in the process of providing training” on Go Bonfire’s online portal, and its application, to all SOEs. “We have to reach out to them more,” he added. “They have their own procurement applications, a lot of them.”

Several sources said the Government has far more than the 31 procuring agencies mentioned in the weekend public procurement report, but Mr Oliver said some often asked the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Finance to handle their contracting needs on their behalf. So while those two ministries might be named as the procuring entities, in reality they were acting for other parts of government.