By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE procurement process is not the problem in obtaining sufficient goods and services in a timely manner but poor management of resources.
Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial said she will never be inconvenienced by going to Parliament to discuss a matter of interest arising out of the as being projected by the Government.
She said in the Senate on Thursday, “I am not inconvenienced and I will never be inconvenienced if it is I have to come here and no member of the Opposition will be inconvenienced to come here and be the watchdogs on behalf of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
There were already provisions in the law to deal wit,h single-sourced items and the rigid procurement process was not the problem but poor management she said.
Lutchmedial said, “The fact of the matter is that poor management of resources and releases from the Ministry of Finance sometimes, leads and the TTPS is a good example of that where the monies approved in the Budget for goods and services aren’t released on time… It has nothing to do with procurement, it has to do with poor management by the government.”
She said the government was just coming up with lame excuses to justify their modification of the law.
While two Orders needed validation, Legal Notice No. 206 of 2023 and Notice No. 164 of 2023 that allows for the exemption of the procurement process relating to foreign dignitaries and the Judiciary for a period of three months, Lutchmedial said Government was “piling a bunch of other things they want to change in order to avoid accountability and transparency.”
She said, “Having a negative resolution is really not the level of oversight you need with something as important as this… You should never have a law that allows the disbanding of accountability and transparency and oversight of a procurement regulator to take effect before anybody in the Parliament is notified before anybody in the Parliament has an opportunity to say a word.”
Explaining what the Government was attempting to amend, Lutchmedial said “You have a period of time where you can operate under zero accountability under negative resolution.”
Negative resolution is the statutory instrument containing the regulations or order is laid before Parliament and must be revoked if either House passes a resolution against it within 40 Parliamentary days.
Lutchmedial said the only reason why Government moved expeditiously to call a Parliament session out of a recess was because they did not want to face Freedom Law Chambers of which she is a part of in the court.
When would the ruling party MP’s realize that their first duty is to the people they represent from their Constituencies.
They are not an extension of the Executive.
I sympathize when the Political Leader has read the riot act to them you can be removed as MP in the next general election.
Our Constitution allows for this dictatorial leadership.
Which was inspired from our Local colonial masters Williams.
A copycat of the English Monachy, is why our Parliament which should be serious business, is a spralang comedy on a Friday in NAPA.