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  by pltm
• Jun 21, 2023
• 0

(PLTM) - Governor John Rankin continues to be concerned about the number of single source procurements undertaken by the Government.

“As a matter both of law and good governance this should be the exception rather than the norm,” Governor Rankin stated.

The Governor has noted that a number of contracts were agreed in the weeks preceding the General Election.

According to the Governor, the Cabinet Secretary has provided him with an update for the reporting period of 1 January 2023 to 21 April 2023.

During the period, he noted that one tender waiver was agreed, which pertained to a legacy contract; nineteen publicly tendered contracts were approved; nine single source procurements, many of which are for the leasing of buildings; and four public procurement exemptions.

Further, Governor Rankin noted that in April, he wrote to Lord Goldsmith with an update on procurement by the BVI Government between January to March 2023 as he had requested.

According to the Governor, during this period there were eleven contracts valued at over $100,000 agreed by the Government of National Unity, five of these were approved following open tendering, four were single source procurements and two were for specialist legal work, which is exempt from the requirements of the Public Procurement Act.

“I believe that better planning would allow for better procurement and improved value for money from Government contracts. Agreeing to tender waivers and having to make retrospective payments because of an absence of forward planning is contrary to good governance,” Governor Rankin has noted.

He stated his encouragement by the increased use of open procurement, which is in contrast to the COI finding that there was no public tendering in two thirds of government contracts between 1 January 2019 and April 2021.

However, he remains concerned about the length of time it is taking to publish tender waivers. According to the Governor, of the 12 nine tender waivers carried out by the Government between May to December 2022, only five of these have so far been published.