MINISTER of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh on Thursday evening tabled the Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2013 in the National Assembly to preserve the role of the Cabinet in contract approvals.

The bill seeks to modify section 54 of the Procurement Act of 2003, by deleting sub-section 6, which by doing so, will retain Cabinet’s involvement in the procurement process.
Government has maintained that if Cabinet and the Executive are to be held responsible to the electorate for the country’s infrastructural development, and for the expenditure of public funds, then Cabinet inevitably must have a role in the procurement process.
Noted too was that if Cabinet loses its role in the award of contracts, then it would be burdened with the responsibility of being answerable for projects when it would have had no influence in the award of those contracts.