Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 07, 2021 News
– says legal action will follow if changes are not made
Kaieteur News – Article 13, a local civil society group formed with the intention to achieve the noble goals and aspirations set out in the constitution of Guyana, has expressed deep concern over the failure by the Irfaan Ali administration to constitute a long list of constitutional and statutory bodies as well as offices required for the proper functioning of the country.
In a release to the press, Article 13 noted the negative impact the absence of these constitutional and statutory bodies have on the overall governance of the country. The group therefore called on the government to address the issue and reconstitute the bodies or face legal action.
“Without assigning a tier of importance to constitutional and statutory bodies, the failure by President Ali to establish the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) and the Public Procurement Commission Tribunal (PPCT), even as his Government expends or announces the expending of billions of dollars of public funds, can no longer be tolerated,” the group said in its statement.
Expounding on its position, the group went on to note that Article 212W of the Guyana Constitution provides for the establishment of a five-person PPC with duties as set out in the Procurement Act include “the regulation of the procurement of goods and services ….to promote fairness and transparency in the procurement process”.
To buttress the work of the PPC, Article 13 notes that the Public Procurement Commission Tribunal Act requires the appointment of a three-person Tribunal to hear appeals on any decision made by the Public Procurement Commission.
At present, Article 13 is seeking confirmation from Ms. Gail Teixeira, the Minister responsible for Governance, on the full list of these bodies and offices and the dates on which they expired.
According to the group, the announcement by Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, SC, that the President would be addressing the issue of the constitutional commissions on his return from the Global Climate Change Conference is welcomed but far from satisfactory.
Further, the group noted that the President is conferred with the duty and responsibility for the appointment of the members of the Commission after their nomination by the Public Accounts Committee and approval by two-thirds of the National Assembly.
“[The President] is required to appoint the Chairman of the Tribunal in accordance with the advice of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), and the two members in accordance with the advice of the Public Service Commission. As Mr. Nandlall has admitted, the Government has failed to constitute the Judicial Service Commission while it is a public fact that there is no Public Service Commission either,” Article 13 continued in the statement.
To add insult to injury, the group claims that the Ali Administration, in violation of the Constitution and the PPC Act, gets its Cabinet to issue a “ farcical and fictitious ‘no objection’” to a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) agreement for the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP), secretly negotiated by its own Government.
To this end, Article 13 said, “That the Ali Administration does not know, or pretends not to know, that the Procurement Act permits an objection by the Cabinet only if it determines that a procuring entity has failed to comply with applicable procurement procedures is frightening for the country’s governance and for the public purse, and poses a real and grave threat to the rule of law.”
The organisation believes that these glaring constitutional and statutory breaches indicate a reckless disregard for the Constitution and the laws of the country which were painstakingly put together to prevent corruption and autocratic actions by the Government and to promote transparency and accountability in matters of public finance.
In this regard, Article 13 made it “abundantly clear,” that they hold the President, his Government, the Opposition, the speaker as well as the National Assembly responsible for the egregious state of affairs, 15 months into the new Administration and the Eleventh Parliament.
“We hereby put the Government on notice that unless the issue of the Public Procurement Commission and the Tribunal is resolved promptly, Article 13 will take the necessary action, legal and otherwise, to restore constitutionality and the rule of law,” the group added in its statement.
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