After a long, drawn-out ten-year process the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Bill was passed in the Senate yesterday by a special three-fifths majority. It was passed after 24 members, including 15 Government and all nine Independent Senators, voted in favour of it. The Opposition had debated vociferously against the bill and the six PNM Senators present yesterday abstained from voting.
Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and deputy political leader Marlene McDonald were not present in the Upper House at the time. Leader of Government Business in the Senate Ganga Singh described the passing of the bill as historic. The Opposition’s main contention was that the Government deliberately delayed the passage of the bill over the last four-and-a-half years to conduct certain procurement activities.
It argued that the Bill was brought for passage at this time only to gain political mileage for the 2015 general election. Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie, who piloted the bill, gave a rousing summary before it was passed. He focused on countering Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi’s earlier presentation.
Tewarie said he did not need to respond to Al-Rawi’s charge that the Government was misinterpreting the Opposition’s position “because the population is an intelligent population and knows who is skinning teeth and being deceptive and who is telling the truth.” He said Al-Rawi, like Rowley, sought to turn the procurement debate into a debate on Invader’s Bay and insinuate there was some kind of malpractice in the billion-dollar state project.
He refuted the Opposition’s argument that the Central Tenders Board (CTB) rules were bypassed in the award of contracts for the project. He said the CTB Act in relation to procurement applies to government quarters and not land and that the Commissioner of State Land dealt with all land matters. Tewarie said there was no subterfuge in the delay in the passage of procurement legislation. The bill lapsed because the PNM raised three main issues and the Government wanted to give them a hearing.
Tewarie also countered the Opposition’s argument that the Government did not allow the President to proclaim the bill by absolute discretion. He said the Constitution provided for executive power but the President was not an executive president. Charging that the Opposition really did not want procurement legislation, Tewarie said it was true it brought a white paper on it in 2005 and legislation in 2006.
He admitted it was that legislation that went before a Joint Select Committee of Parliament which presented the report that led to the present bill. However, at no time during its tenure did the PNM ever bring procurement legislation to Parliament for debate, he added. “All they did was galay and galay and galay,” the minister said, slipping into the colloquial.
Praising the Government, he said: “You could call it a box drain government if you want, but people in rural areas you put in the bamboo see the benefit of box drains.” Tewarie said the Government also did more projects in the urban PNM stronghold of East Port-of-Spain in three years than the PNM did in 20 years. “And if you only stretch me, I have the list and I will read it out,” he said, to laughter from his colleagues.
Charging the PNM was self righteous and came to Parliament playing holier than thou, Tewarie attempted to disclose details of the Broadgate project scandal under the PNM regime. However, he was quickly opposed by the Opposition on the grounds the matter was subjudice. Senate President Timothy Hamel-Smith agreed and Tewarie was silenced.
He vowed the Government was going to be in power for the next five years “and not because I say so but because the people are watching and listening and talking and also looking at what you (the PNM) are and making judgments. “The country has been brought to a good place in four-and-half years,” he said.
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Civil Society Group responds
Chairman of the Private Sector, Civil Society Group on Public Procurement, Winston Riley welcomed the passage of the bill, which he said had been a long time in coming. He added: “First we have to give credit to Minister Tewarie and the Independent Senators who were the driving force in getting this legislation passed. “The legislation is far more rigorous than anything that went before and we are generally happy with it in its present form.”
He said the most important issue now was the operation of the legislation and he called on the President to provide his assent to it, which he said would be a Christmas gift to the population.
Christmas greeting in House
Parliament was adjourned to a date to be fixed until after the Christmas holidays. Government Senator Marlene Coudray, giving Christmas greetings called on the nation to reflect on Christ, “the reason for the season.” “We spend so much time shopping and making preparations and have no time to reflect on what the celebrations are about. The celebrations are about the Christ child,” she said.
Camille Robinson-Regis, on behalf of the PNM, said Christmas was one of the religious festivals in T&T celebrated by all groups. “Where I live, the neighbour opposite me is a Hindu and has more lights than me. “Everybody shares in the spirit. I think it because of what it means,” she said, quoting Isaiah 9:6.