The Nassau Guardian
Turnquest: U.S. report an indictment on Christie administration
A recent U.S. Department of State report highlighting “undue interference” in the government’s bidding and procurement process is an indictment against the Christie administration, Shadow Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said yesterday.
When called for comment, Turnquest said it is a shame that the U.S. pointed this out.
“That’s a serious indictment because, again, it takes us back to an era when if you wanted something done you had to call certain people to get it done,” he said.
Former Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing said yesterday that as far as he is aware the issue was never raised by the U.S. during the last Ingraham administration.
He said the administration was working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to create a new system for the tendering process that would have made it more transparent.
“From our own governance point of view we had worked on trying to improve the tendering process,” he said when contacted for comment.
“The reality is attempts to do things fairly and transparently in any bid process is a relatively straightforward exercise.
“Everybody has to believe that they have equal opportunity to do so.
“There has to be a process that people can observe and believe that, once they participate in it, that their chance of being duly considered is as good as anybody else.”
In its latest Investment Climate report on The Bahamas, the U.S. Department of State said that it has received a number of reports of impropriety in recent times surrounding the issuance of contracts by the government.
“Over the last year, the embassy (in Nassau) has received several complaints from U.S. companies alleging a lack of transparency and undue government interference with bidding and procurement processes,” the report said, which is compiled for the U.S. Department of State by the U.S. embassy in Nassau.
The U.S. highlighted the issue in its 2013 report as well.
“The process lacks transparency; there is no requirement to engage in open public tenders, and award decisions are not subject to challenge or review,” the 2013 report said.
There are no critical notes regarding the bidding process in The Bahamas in the previous U.S. state department reports, which date back to 2009.
While not commenting on the report, Laing said it should not make a difference to anyone that the U.S. raised the issue.
“What should always be a concern for Bahamians is that we do things as effectively and efficiently as we can,” he said.
“That other people point out some flaws in our process doesn’t make that any more important to us.
“What is important is that we ourselves look at ourselves and ask, ‘am I doing the most effective, the most efficient job that I can do?’”
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