BY JULIE CARRINGTON | SEP 16, 2022
Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn. (FP)
Government will soon be rolling out changes to how it manages its procurement process.
Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ryan Straughn, made the disclosure today, as he addressed the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados’ Public Sector Conference.
Speaking to his virtual audience, the Minister pointed out that the Public Procurement Act passed in Parliament, and the new measures would be coming in the latter half of the year to provide greater transparency in managing the procurement process in government and state-owned enterprises.
He stressed, there was nothing “inherently bad” about the current process but the changes were necessary to ensure that all available opportunities were made known.
“What this is intended to do is to ensure that all available opportunities are published online, and in the same way that they are published in the newspapers today, which quite frankly, most people don’t read newspapers these days, but they are published in newspapers, and on the Government Information Service website.”
Mr. Straughn further stated: “We want to ensure that registered suppliers and all persons who are interested in supplying goods and services the government will register on the portal, and will receive at their choosing whatever opportunities are available within government, in order to ensure… that the procurement process is better streamlined, much more efficient for agencies to execute, and therefore, affording an opportunity for us to not just lower the cost with respect to how we procure, but certainly enhance the management process in relation to our public procurement.”
