KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC—The Jamaican Government is revising the thresholds for procuring goods, services, and works in public-sector entities. It also indicates that a ‘Government of Jamaica Procurement Awards’ will be introduced to celebrate excellence in procurement.
Finance and Public Service Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke opened the debate on the 2024-25 national budget and told legislators that the move to revise procurement services would be facilitated through amendments to the Public Procurement Act 2015 and its Regulations, which are in advanced stages of development and should be tabled early in the new fiscal year.
Clarke said the amendments would revise the thresholds below, allowing procuring entities to adopt more agile contracting procedures and accelerating contract formation.
“For example, in the case of contracts for goods and services, we will increase the threshold below which single-source procurement is permissible from J$1.5 million (One Jamaica dollar = US$0.008 cents) to three million dollars. The $1.5-million threshold has been in place for almost a decade. For works, it will go from two million dollars to five million dollars,” he added.
The Finance and Public Service Minister also announced that the limits required for approval from the Public Procurement Commission will move from J$30 million to at least J$60 million.
“We will empower procurement entities to have more autonomy and award higher-value contracts without external approval. These changes will speed up the pace the Government can deliver.”
Clarke said that the mandatory standstill period of 10 days between the date of a procurement decision and the date of award will be abolished for all but the largest procurement awards.
The sector committee stage will also be removed. He noted, “The greatest improvement in efficiency that we will get is by removing the many layers that exist.”
However, the main opposition is the People’s National Party (PNP), concerned about the announced changes to the public procurement process and its potential implications.
The PNP spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson, said. At the same time, the party acknowledges the need for streamlining procedures and using technology to aid in the county’s development; there are significant worries regarding the integrity and potential for fraud in this initiative.
Robinson emphasised the importance of transparency in government operations, particularly in procurement. He noted that allegations of corruption and misappropriation of public funds, which the Government faces, compound worries about the integrity of the procurement process.
“How can we, the citizens, trust a government embroiled in integrity issues to manage procurement without proper checks and balances?
“This government, which currently has six members under investigation by the Integrity Commission and the Prime Minister whose statutory declarations are yet to be certified, raises serious doubts about their ability to manage procurement without adequate oversight.”
The PNP said that it was, therefore, calling for the Government to outline the mechanisms that will be in place to ensure a smooth transition to the new public procurement process and publish all contracts exceeding J$10 million, thereby ensuring transparency and accountability.
Clarke told legislators that the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) Procurement Awards’ will be introduced to celebrate excellence in procurement and change the procurement culture in the public service.
“Procurement was, for many, a bad word, but the country cannot move ahead like that. We’re going to honor and reward procurement leadership, procurement efficiency, and procurement innovation across the 200 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs),” said Clarke.
He said that the existing Corporate Governance Award has played a vital role in improving corporate governance over time, and he believes that the GOJ Procurement Awards will have the same cultural impact.
Clarke gave details on how the Government’s procurement process is being transformed, noting that the Ministry has now published a series of time-efficiency benchmarks, which will form the basis of its reporting going forward.
These benchmarks challenge the status quo by directing the expected time to be taken in each stage of procurement, correcting for contingent issues such as resources, contracts, and volume. They are intended to hold procuring entities to higher standards of efficiency and stimulate internal or entity-level reform.
“What gets measured, gets done,” Clarke said, pointing out that the aim is to make all results available for public members to examine how various procuring entities are performing on the procurement metric and how more efficiencies can be attained.
Meanwhile, the minister has also indicated that the audit and final evaluation of the Public Sector Transformation Programme will be conducted between April and June of this year.
He said it is the first Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded program to achieve all the measures agreed upon with the IDB within the agreed timelines and loan amounts.
The Public Sector Transformation Programme aims to effect reform to enhance the quality of public services and efficiency in public spending.
It entailed five pillars – expanding the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the public sector to drive efficiency and effectiveness, building a shared services operation as a means of transforming the way Government provides service internally, transforming human resource management practices, compensation management, and rationalizing public bodies.
Clarke also disclosed that Jamaica now has a fully functional electronic procurement system and that the Government of Jamaica Electronic Procurement System (GOJEP) “manages tender calls and bid submissions and aids in bid evaluation through its several modules.
“It is indispensable throughout all the stages of the procurement process,” Clarke told legislators.
Since August 1, 2023, it has been mandatory to use GOJEP for procurement transactions above J$1.5 million. Since then, hundreds of suppliers have been onboarded, additional user training has been facilitated, and real-time support has been provided to both suppliers and procuring entities.
The system is expected to provide reliable data and other information on the functioning of the country’s procurement process, increase the ease of doing business with the Government, and reduce bureaucracy.
Clarke said that during the three-year transition period to GOJEP, the Government invested in producing easy-to-use manuals for suppliers and procurement practitioners, multimedia aids, and similar tools.
These are available on the GOJEP and the Office of Public Procurement Policy websites.
During his budget debate, Clarke announced that the Government is introducing a reverse tax credit of J$20,000 for individuals earning less than three million dollars annually.
“The reverse tax credit means that every registered taxpayer who, in a completed fiscal year, did their part in contributing to society, whether through PAYE or being self-employed, and who earns under that threshold, this government will provide them with a reverse tax credit of $20 000,” said the Finance and Public Service Minister.
He said there are 570,000 Jamaicans who contribute to society through statutory deductions and some through personal income tax who will benefit from this measure.
Clarke said this program costs J$11.4 billion, and “we consider this money well spent.”
The finance minister noted that reverse tax credits exist in other countries but are being implemented for the first time in Jamaica. He said Tax Administration Jamaica will manage an established system for the processing and payment of the tax credit.
He said it would take some time to set up before it is ready “because we want to set it up in a durable way so that the mechanism can be potentially available again.”
Clarke said this is Andrew Holness’s Government’s “leveraging the macro-economic stability to the people’s benefit.”
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