The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business

Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Michael Halkitis, Minister of Economic Affairs, said yesterday the government is still complying with the Public Procurement Act and information is still being updated on the system.

Speaking at the Office of the Prime Minister’s weekly press briefing, Mr Halkitis said as contracts are awarded they will be added to the Public Procurement website when questioned by reporters when the government will disclose contracts within the 60 day time period outlined in the Public Procurement Act.

He said: “That should be ongoing now. So the process now is going to be continually updated as they are what we call awarded it’ll be on the website.”

He maintained the government is complying with the Public Procurement Act although the “goalposts continue to be moved” by the opposition.

He said: “The contracts that are awarded on the system, they will continue to be updated, we are complying with the legislation. But you know, just as we have with the EU blacklisting, and then it seems as if some people are, you know these goalposts continue to be moved, we continue to comply, we continue to train, provide the information, the public will have the benefit of it.

“We don’t expect certain quarters ever to be satisfied.. so I don’t have much to say other than that.”

Opposition leader Michael Pintard released a statement yesterday accusing the government of using “every feeble and inane excuse” to justify not following the Public Procurement Act.

He said: “It is a tragic spectacle for the Bahamian people to watch the people we pay to manage our affairs attempt every feeble and inane excuse to seek to justify why they cannot follow the laws that they first supported while in Opposition and later approved once in Government.

No amount of mistruths, half-truths and deflections can explain why the PLP continues to break the procurement law. The comments today by Minister Halkitis seeking to defend the indefensible continues to show Bahamians why the PLP cannot be trusted to govern.”

Mr Halkitis has said that the government “has nothing to hide” and “there was never any intention of this administration to circumvent any requirements under the Public Procurement Act”. He explained the government had to engage a procurement officer, acquire technology and train staff prior to the Public Procurement Act being put in practice.

The Davis administration has yet to reveal the procurement officer or the members of the board, however, Tribune Business understands the board was selected recently and Jerome Gomez , former PLP senator and chartered accountant has been selected as the chairman of the Procurement Board and Simon Wilson, Financial Secretary, serves on the board as well.

Mr Pintard said the Davis administration removed the chief procurement officer when they came to power and waited two years to appoint a Procurement Board.

He said: “After two years of being in office, Minister Halkitis seems to concede that the government is breaking the law because, according to him, they needed time to appoint a chief procurement officer and appoint a procurement board. Is he the only Bahamian who doesn’t realize that the government has someone performing that job - that the press routinely interviews the acting Chief Procurement Officer who the PLP met with that designation when they came to office. A capable and experienced public servant is in that role and has been in that role for over two years!

“As for the Procurement Board, the PLP met in place persons already designated for that board - including a chairperson. They decided to cancel those appointments and failed for almost two years to appoint a new Board. We have come to understand from our sources in government that a new Board was just appointed within the last few months.”

He questioned how the Davis administration has been able to legally award large contracts if the law requires all large bids to go before the Procurement Board and it was not in place until recently.

He said: “So we must ask: With the procurement acts of 2021 and 2023 both requiring by law a Procurement Board to approve large projects, how has the PLP legally been able to award the many multi-million dollar projects? Except for express emergencies, the law requires all bids of a certain dollar value to go to an appointed Procurement Board. If this board was not in place until recently, how were these bids approved and the contracts awarded?”

Mr Pintard said publishing contracts within 60 days is “not a difficult undertaking” and has been a “common practice for decades and decades for government agencies to publish information in newspapers”.

He accused the Davis administration of having “no desire of intention” to disclose contracts as they are “too embarrassed by the millions of dollars of contracts they have doled out to their political cronies and hangers-on”.

He said: “Minister Halkitis and his colleagues must stop their lawlessness. They cannot for example provide one good reason as to why the details of the contracts they are awarding are not published in the newspapers within 60 days as the law requires. This is not a difficult undertaking. It is common practice for decades and decades for government agencies to publish information in the newspapers. There is no special training required. Nor do the agencies have to produce new information on these public contracts that they do not already have. This Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues simply have no desire or intention to get it done.

“By now the public understands: The PLP has no use for this or any law that requires accountability and transparency. In our view, they are clearly too embarrassed by the millions of dollars of contracts they have doled out to their political cronies and hangers-on. And they will find every conceivable excuse to hide the information they do not want the public to see. But the Bahamian people have already caught on to their bluffs and their games. And the public is growing eager to see the backs of them.”