PINTAR D SLA M S DAVIS GOVT ON FAILURE TO COMP LY WIT H PROCURE M ENT ACT

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Move- ment Leader Michael Pintard has again slammed the Davis administration for failing to comply with the Public Procurement Act’s requirement to disclose awarded contracts.

The law requires the government to disclose the name and address of winning bidders, the procuring entity, the procurement selection method, and the award amount within 60 days of the contract award.

Last month, Financial Secretary Simon Wilson said the government is committed to complying with the law but could not provide a definitive timeline.

In response, Mr Pintard said the government’s actions are “contemptible nonsense”.

“After nearly two years in office, this hapless and wholly unaccountable PLP government is –– according to the Ministry of Finance –– still not ready to provide this information to the Bahamian public,” Mr Pintard said in a statement.

“It is contemptible nonsense because for decades, all government agencies have been publishing information through regular public notices in the various newspapers. This is routine administrative work that our public officers have been doing for years.

“The only reason the public is not getting this information is because the prime minister and his Cabinet colleagues are intentionally hiding information from the public.

“They clearly do not want Bahamian taxpayers to see how their hardearned money is being spent. What is the big secret? What is the PLP trying to hide from the Bahamian people so much so that they are happily prepared to break the law to do so?”

Mr Pintard scolded the prime minister, accusing his administration of being “long on talk but short on action”.

“One of the many things that is worrisome about this continued lawbreaking is the fact that when the public examines the contracts where the details are in the public domain, serious concerns and or irregularities are discovered.

“This fact makes us wonder what else we will find once the secret and unreported contracts are thoroughly examined.”

Last month, the Bahamas Contractors Association president, Leonard Sands, criticised the government’s failure to publish contract awards and accused the administration of deliberately ignoring the requirement.

Bahamas with regard to their support of Kenya as a lead nation and their commitment to offer troops. We have seen similar statements from other countries in the region, either formal statements or public comments, and that includes from Trinidad and Tobago, from

Jamaica, from Chile, from Canada, from the UK, the Dominican Republic, and the Organization of American States. So I think that is evidence that there is strong support for an urgent solution to Haiti’s security crisis and offers of support to that end.”

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