Former Public Procurement Commissioners to be paid $48M in gratuity

– PAC to meet later this week to finalise list of nominees

The five former members of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) will be the beneficiaries of $48 million in gratuity between 2016 and 2020, following a decision by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to approve the payout.
In fact, it turns out that the PAC had met and approved the money for the five members – Chairperson Carol Corbin and members Ivor English, Nanda Gopaul, Sukrishnalall Pasha and Emily Dodson – since last year and the intention was to pay them in time for Christmas.
But when the PAC had its first meeting of 2022 on Monday, Chairperson Jermaine Figueira expressed disappointment that the monies had not been paid yet and questioned the reason for the delay.

Pasha, who now serves as the Finance Secretary (FS) in the Ministry of Finance, informed the PAC that the monies were available but that he is not in receipt of the PAC’s written decision to pay out the monies.
“A decision was made for this payment. And it was important for us to ensure that the decision was implemented. If that decision is sent to me, I can look at the numbers and using the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act as well as the circulars, which I issued last year, the payment could be honoured without breaching any law,” Pasha said, prompting Figueira to assure him that the decision would be sent on Monday. In fact, Figueira subsequently announced that a pay sheet has since been prepared for the former Commissioners to be paid.
Confusion momentarily arose at the PAC, after it was revealed that at one point the matter had been referred to Minister of Governance Gail Teixeira, who is also a member of the PAC, so that she could approve the decision.
Teixeira made it clear on Monday that she could not authorise spending and she was at a loss to explain why Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly, Hermina Gilgeous, sent the documents to her for approval.
“Outside of being a member of this Committee, as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance you may have noted that in the last two budgets I answered for the constitutional bodies and office of the President. And I defend their budgets, including all the constitutional agencies and the PPC,” Teixeira said.
“I don’t know Ms Gilgeous sent it to me. She may have assumed that as the person defending the budget, I have to do something with this. On receipt of this I realised I have no such authority to deal with this and I sent it to the FS. He then returned it to me the same day and I sent it to the Ministry of Finance, saying I do not have the authority to give approval for $48 million.”

PPC
Also discussed was the PAC subcommittee set up last year to appoint the Public Procurement Commission. It is expected that the subcommittee will meet on Wednesday where they will seek to finalise the appointment of this Commission.
There was criticism from the Opposition members of the PAC, at the length of time it was taking the sub-committee to meet and finalise the members of the Commission. A suggestion was even made by member Ganesh Mahipaul that if the subcommittee cannot complete its work by next week, then the list of names be brought to the full house.
However, PAC member Juan Edghill cautioned against ultimatums being issued and urged that the subcommittee be allowed to follow due process. Meanwhile, Teixeira explained that as the matter stands, there are eight nominees in total. However, she noted that the Opposition has not confirmed who are its final two nominees for the PPC shortlist.
“At our last meeting in December, we looked at a number of names. We also kept an opening, flexibility to do with an approach which we said we would go back and discuss with our principals. At no point did you indicate what were the persons that your party, your Opposition was in support of. And we agreed to meet again. There was no further communication with us from that meeting, except exchange Christmas greetings and that was it.”
“At Wednesday’s meeting, if the Opposition is ready with their two names and we’re ready with our three names then we can proceed. If we’re still in the process of making decisions and getting guidance, then we’ll have to keep meeting… there have been names proposed but no one has indicated which of the two and which of the three, either side are in support of,” Teixeira posited.
The PPC has the vital role of overseeing contract approvals and mediating contractor complaints. The PAC is responsible for approving members of this Commission, as well as requesting background checks on candidates.