Halkitis defends govt’s delayed procurement reporting

Minister of Economic Affairs Michael Halkitis yesterday defended the government against accusations launched by Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Michael Pintard that it is not abiding by the reporting requirements of the Public Procurement Act.

Last month, Pintard accused the Davis administration of refusing to publish the details of contracts awarded since coming into office in September.

The law, which was passed in March and went into effect on September 2, requires the publication of contracts within 60 days of approval.

“The law was passed in early 2021, it was implemented on the second of September 2021, conveniently two weeks before the election. We’ll report as necessary, we are complying with the legislation and the reports will be made. But that procurement legislation came into effect two weeks before an election and here you have a former government that was procuring right up to that, with no training, no manuals, no regulations, all of that we have to implement now,” Halkitis told reporters yesterday in response to the opposition’s criticism.

“So, Mr. Pintard should just appreciate that when you do transformative, wide-ranging legislation like that, you have to train the public service to implement it and you have to have regulations and manuals.”

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has pledged to introduce anti-corruption legislation, which Halkitis has said would encompass higher standards for public procurement.

Halkitis has said the act in its current form must be amended.

“We’re looking at those acts. We’ve had a lot of legislation that was pushed through and we have to make sure that legislation makes sense. You need transparency, you need accountability, you need order in government operations but it also needs to make sense so that the government can operate,” he said yesterday.

“So we’re looking at the legislation to make some changes, to make sure we maintain the transparency, but government’s hands are not tied and you’re not crippled in terms of when government needs to procure and do things, especially on an urgent basis. So we’re looking at all of that and whatever changes are made will come before Parliament and will be in the full light.”

The PLP has said it is committed to bringing greater transparency to public financial management, so that it is clear who is receiving government funds and that the government is getting value for money.

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