PARLIAMENTARY Affairs and Governance Minister Gail Teixeira maintained that the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) will be appointed, but the Bid Review Committee provided for in the Procurement Act already addresses issues pertaining to the public-tendering process raised by contractors.

In an interview with government’s communications arm, the DPI, the minister said dissatisfied contractors in public-procurement processes can file complaints to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), which must then set up a Bid Review Committee to hear the contractors’ claims and make decisions.

Pending review activated by a dispute, the contract award is put on hold until the work of the Bid Review Committee concludes.

Minister Teixeira was at the time responding to statements made last Monday in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by the committee’s chair, Jermaine Figueira, and member from the APNU+AFC, Ganesh Mahipaul.

Mahipaul had claimed that in the absence of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), there were contractors who were dissatisfied but could not have their complaints addressed.

The parliamentary affairs and governance minister disagreed with Mahipaul. “This is laughable, as this committee is established when there is a complaint. And the individuals on the committee may not be the same as in the case of a permanent committee,” Minister Teixeira explained.

“This has never been brought to light publicly. [Maybe] it was the imagination of Mahipaul, [but] that has never been said publicly by anybody or reported in the press by anybody that people have no confidence in the Bid Review Committee,” the minister is quoted as saying in a DPI interview.

Turning attention to a previous meeting of the PAC where the matter was raised, Minister Teixeira said: “[the Bid Review] Committee has to answer within two weeks when the claims by the contractor are valid. If the contractors go to the PPC, it is most likely that the award has already been signed.”

“This is a blatant attempt by Mahipaul and other members of the opposition to misinform and detract from what is unfolding at every PAC meeting and that is the instances of gross corruption found in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Annual Audit Reports of the Auditor General under the APNU+AFC Coalition Government,” Teixeira plugged.

The minister said the President, Dr Irfaan Ali-led government is committed to transparency. (DPI story, with modification)