The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

THE government is not trying to “circumvent” the requirements of the Public Procurement Act, the Minister of Economic Affairs insisted yesterday.

Senator Michael Halkitis, speaking to reporters, reiterated that “there was never any intention of this administration to circumvent any requirements under the Public Procurement Act” and that there is “nothing to hide”.

He said: “As I said at the press briefing a week ago, there was never any intention of this administration to circumvent any requirements under the Public Procurement Act.”

On Sunday, the Ministry of Finance disclosed that 843 contracts worth $140m were awarded from September 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, however, opposition leader, Michael Pintard said the contract procurement report was ‘incomplete’ and failed to satisfy the transparency requirements of the Procurement Act.

Mr Halkitis said the publication had been done at the “appropriate time” and promised a communication to the Bahamian people on the issue. He claimed the previous FNM administration enacted the Act before the last election to ensure they would not have to comply.

He added: “We had an administration who put in a Procurement Act and trumpeted this procurement act, but never had to live with it. We have to live with it. We’ve implemented it. We continue to update the information and the public will have access to all information, nothing to hide.”

Mr Halkitis said the previous administration enacted the Public Procurement Act, but “intentionally” did not put it into effect until two weeks before election, ensuring that they would not have to comply.

He said: “This Procurement Act was enacted by the former administration early in 2021, and specifically, did not come, by their action, did not come into effect until September 2 2021, two weeks before the election.

“So you had an administration who put in a piece of legislation that they did not have to comply with, intentionally. They did not have to comply with it, they did not have to live with it.”

He said the Davis administration had to engage a procurement officer, acquire technology and train staff to ensure that the Public Procurement Act put in practice.

He said: “The leader of the opposition, continues to talk about breaking the law and not complying with publication that is one element of the procurement legislation, a much more important element that we, coming in, in 2021, had to do was engage chief procurement officer, establish a procurement board, acquire technology, train individuals in every single government ministry and every single government agency in using the system, acquire the system, an adequate system, I might add, and so, we’ve done that.”

He said updating the information in the publication will be a “continuous process” and that an annual report will be released to the public.

He said: “The provision of the law that requires a publication, we’ve done that. The publication and the update of the information is a continuous process. If you go today, you’ll see more information than was there yesterday, go tomorrow, you’ll see more information than there’s today. So it’s a continual process. It also calls for an annual report that will be done and all the information will be made public.”