IT is almost four months since members of the Public Procurement Commission (PPP) were sworn in by President David Granger, but to date, the Commission is still not functioning. However, the five members, which include Emily Dodson, Carol Corbin (Chairperson), Sukrishnalall Pasha, Ivor Burnette English and former Labour Minister, Dr Nanda Gopaul are being paid their full salaries.
This was confirmed by Cabinet Secretary and Minister of State Joseph Harmon at a post-Cabinet media briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency Friday.
“Yes, the Commissioners have to be paid, I believe they are being paid, I haven’t seen a payslip from anybody but clearly from the time they were appointed, they are entitled to those salaries.”
Reports in the media had revealed that Corbin’s salary as chairperson is approximately $1.3M plus security, while Dr Gopaul as the vice chair, receives about $1.1 M plus telephone allowances. The other commissioners earn at least $900,000 per month.
The report also noted that the commissioners are entitled to duty-free concessions, entertainment allowances and a telephone allowance of about $10,000 each.
According to the Cabinet Secretary, the PPC is not functioning due to the lack of staff, which means that Cabinet still has the authority to grant its ‘no objection’ to contracts.
“I think it is public knowledge now that they’ve been looking, they’ve been advertising for staff for the Commission, I think a CEO and some other auxiliary staff,” Minister Harmon said.
When questioned, he could not give a specific timelines as to when the PPC will be fully functional.
“But certainly once the Public Procurement Commission says to us that ‘we are ready to function’ then Cabinet will cease doing anything in that regard. But in the meantime, since these are public infrastructure projects that have to be executed, we cannot basically just sit and wait. Our 2017 budget was passed in 2016 and therefore the intention is to ensure that these public infrastructure projects that they can be off and running very early,” Harmon said.
BID PROTEST COMMITTEE
Meanwhile, Cabinet has approved the request by Minister of Finance Winston Jordan to remunerate the members of the Bid Protest Committee.
This committee was established to facilitate appeals for the review of contracts awarded by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.
According to Harmon, Cabinet has approved that each request for review of a contract attracts a non-refundable fee of $50,000 plus one per cent of the complainant’s bid price.
Cabinet also approved the payment of fees in the sum $80,000 for the chairperson and $60,000 for the members of this committee; these payments are paid per case reviewed by the committee.
The four-member committee comprises: Attorney Joann Bond, who is the chairperson; Archibald Clifton; Ewart Adams and Colin Sawh. In June 2016, Cabinet gave its approval for this body to be established to hear complaints from aggrieved bidders and other stakeholders.