Reviewing The Regional Procurement Bill
As details surrounding the actions of the previous administration continue unfold, the inadequacies in Barbados’ procurement system are increasingly evident. Queries have been made about how this system will be improved, and in response, Government has made passing reference to its interest in a regional procurement bill. The draft CARICOM Procurement bill seeks to facilitate the national implementation of the CSME Public Procurement Regime. The proposed regime aims to establish an integrated and single public procurement space for member states. If Barbados is to become a signatory, this bill will govern the integrity of the island’s procurement activities.
Integrity provisions within the bill
A review of this bill would indicate that provisions that involve integrity are in fact included. Under the legislation, it would be an offence for procurement officials to disclose confidential information that is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of suppliers to impede fair competition. Provisional aspects of the bill also broadly speak to matters of fair treatment of bidders by prohibiting artificially narrowing competition to grant undue advantage to favor a bidder.
Matters of transparency are also captured, as procuring entities should ensure that every procurement opportunity is published on the Community Public Procurement Notice Board. Additionally, procurement officials with direct interests regarding submitted bids must declare these interests, and insofar as possible, recuse themselves from the procurement proceedings. This is a laudable provision as conflicts of interests can subject procurement processes to political manipulation, bribery and other forms of maleficence.
Promoting transparency
Transparency is also promoted as the bill calls for the creation of an annual procurement plan. These plans comprised of procuring entity’s procurement intensions for the year including the types of goods and services, volumes, values, and proposed dates for publication of invitations for bid.
Integrity needs to be promoted further
Although these provisions are laudable, there are concerns over whether they sufficiently promote integrity. A major concern is the existence of loopholes that will likely undermine its good governance initiatives. The bill allows for restrictive bidding whereby only suppliers who are invited by the procuring entity may submit a bid. However, the rules that govern this process arguably do not sufficiently establish strict parameters to determine when restrictive bidding should be allowed.
This restrictive bidding is permitted on arguably subjective criteria that can easily allow for biased determinations to be made. Procuring entities may use the restricted bidding method where it is decided that only a limited number of suppliers can perform the contract. Other broadly drafted criteria include matters of urgency where tendering is impractical because of the time involved in using such a method. The subjectivity of these provisions can expose the procurement process to political interference with the intent of granting undue advantages possibly in return for kickbacks.
E-procurement needed
The bill is also inadequate, as it does not sufficiently consider modern approaches that can assist in promoting integrity. One such mechanism is E-procurement and its ability to promote transparency. Yet, in this regard, the bill’s online initiatives are limited to the procurement notice board and the publication of procurement plans. A modern procurement bill ought to explicitly grant the public the ability to access tendering details, processes, designs, financial information and details the final product. This will allow various stakeholders to act as additional layers of surveillance that can ensure the process is standardized and to detect deviations and potential wrong doings.
Given the magnitude of problems that relate to procurement, a robust procurement bill is necessary to mitigate these concerns. As such, greater attention ought to be paid to improving the integrity provisions of the CARICOM Procurement bill.