New Public Procurement Commission poised to be sworn in

Last Updated on Thursday, 14 April 2022, 0:25 by Denis Chabrol

The National Assembly Wednesday night unanimously approved the five persons  who would be serving on the Public Procurement Commission (PPC)

Those approved by the bipartisan Public Accounts Committee as “”suitable candidates” to sit on the PPC are Attorney-at-Law Pauline Chase, Economist Joel Bhagwandin, Rajnarain Singh, Berkeley Wickham and Diana Rajcumar. The nominees secured at least two-thirds support from members of the National Assembly in keeping with Guyana’s Constitution.

Mr. Wickham and Ms Rajcumar have been nominated by the opposition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change.

PAC Chairman, Jermaine Figueira thanked the inaugural PPC- Carol Corbin, Dr Nankishore Gopaul, Sukrishnalall Pasha, Ivor English and Emily Dodson- and hoped that they would be “given their rightly deserved dues” for their work in setting up the PPC.

Government lawmaker and PAC Member, Gail Teixeira noted that the People’s Progressive Party Civic-led administration had always proposed that three of the five PPC members represent government and two from the opposition but until  now it had been supported. “I believe that in the process that we went through, I think we have found some very good Guyanese to be able to take on this responsibility and continue the work of the former PPC,” she said.

She highlighted that the PPC largely represented a “younger generation” after having undergone police background checks.

Sixty members voted in favour of the motion.

The PPC is responsible for monitoring and reviewing the functioning of all public procurement systems to ensure that they are in accordance with law and such policy guidelines as may be determined by the National Assembly.