Government Revises Procurement Procedures

Government is revising measures governing public sector procurement procedures, to allow specific entities to negotiate and award contracts above the existing $4 million limit, without having to secure approval from the National Contracts Commission or Cabinet.
Minister of Information, Culture, Youth & Sports, Olivia Grange has said that while this would afford some measure of flexibility to the designated entities, prudent management would be put in place to ensure there is no breach or abuse of the system.
Speaking at Wednesday’s (December 19) post-Cabinet media briefing, Minister of Information, Culture, Youth & Sports, Olivia Grange said that Cabinet reviewed proposals from the Ministry of Finance & the Public Service for the revision of “certain procedures to improve the efficiency of public sector procurement.”
The proposed measures approved were: an increase in the approval threshold for the award of government contracts by the Commission or Cabinet; the accreditation of a select number of public sector agencies to approve contracts internally up to a certain threshold because of the frequency of high value procurement contracts, critical to their core business; and management by specific entities, of procurements critical to their efficient operation in a competitive marketplace.
Miss Grange disclosed that the national carrier, Air Jamaica, was one of the four entities which would be granted exemption.
“The four million dollar threshold is still there. But there are specific entities (such as Air Jamaica), that have been exempted. What is being done is to allow that flexibility (above the threshold). But it does not mean that the floodgates will be opened, there will be prudent management,” the Minister emphasized.