In an effort to foster a greater understanding and utility of the Caribbean Public Procurement Notice Board (CPPNB) and the National Advertising Portal(NAP) a three-day capacity-building workshop was conducted with Senior Procurement Officers in the Public Service. Director of the CARICOM Single Market, Titus Preville said that the Notice Board and Advertising Portal form part of the electronic tools that have been provided as part of the public procurement regime pursuant to Article 239 of the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
“While the protocol on public procurement was approved by the Conference of Heads of Government in 2019 to date only six member states, Antigua/Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname have signed the protocol, and the declaration of intent to provisionally apply the protocol.”
Saint Lucia he said has not yet signed the protocol however Saint Lucia and Belize are the only two member states that have approved the rules and procedures for administering the protocol on Public Procurement. A total of EU $1.5 million was spent on developing these procurement instruments for the Caribbean Community.
“Since the Public Procurement Notice Board was commissioned in September 2019 only Barbados and Belize have made use of the CPPMB and the National Advertising Portals that come with them. The CARICOM Secretariat and by extension the Community continues to pay annually US$80,000 through a service level agreement to the developer, European Dynamics, for a warranty to service and maintain the system which is only being used by two member states.”
Preville added that there appears to be a lack of internal coordination in member states which continues to stifle progress on critical matters which effectively deny the people of the Caribbean the benefits intended from the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.
“How do we justify our actions or inactions as the case appears to be? How do we explain our actions to the citizens of the Community? The truth is during the time of COVID-19 we had systems that would have allowed most of us to work from home and provide an efficient service to our communities while keeping ourselves safe. Notwithstanding the presence of the CPPNB and National Advertising Portals, some member states in their wisdom have invested significant resources in new public procurement systems while not making use of the existing system.”
Permanent Secretary in the Department of Finance, Francis Fontenelle, said this three-day capacity-building opportunity will afford procurement entities an appreciation of the objectives of regionally integrated procurement, the benefits to be derived, and the manner in which those benefits can be achieved.
“Training in the use of the Notice Board is expected to result in the following:
- Equipping our procurement entities and suppliers with the means to access the wider regional market
- Allowing procuring entities valuable insights into how member states are performing their procedures
- Gaining access to a wider pool of suppliers available to meet our procurement requirements
- Giving our local suppliers access to a wider regional market
- And to introduce a higher standard of transparency in public procurement”
He noted that the level of transparency is premised on fairness and openness in the procurement process.
“Embracing open competition in government procurement requires an appreciation for the best value which can be obtained via this method and of course openness to scrutiny where the use of public funds is concerned.”
The workshop was facilitated by Seniors Technical Officers, Philip Mc Lauren and Derek Brown from the CSME Office in Barbados. It is hoped that through these Capacity building sessions, there will be greater participation by member countries to utilize the Caribbean Public Procurement Notice Board and National Advertising Portals.