Systems overlooking public spending must be strong -President tells new PPC members

Systems overlooking public spending must be strong -President tells new PPC members
The swearing-in ceremony for members of the Public Procurement Commission was held at the Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown Office (Photo: Office of the President/July 1, 2022)

However, he highlighted that he has full confidence that the combined experience, knowledge, and diverse expertise of the members will add value to their work and bring the necessary benefit to the country.

Four of the five nominated members of the commission were sworn in on Friday; they are government nominees Rajnarine Singh and Joel Bhagwandin and opposition nominees Diana Rajkumar and Berkeley Wickham.

The remaining government nominee, attorney-at-law Pauline Chase is currently out of the country and will be sworn in during the course of the new week, President Ali disclosed.

The purpose of the PPC, as outlined in Article 212 AA of the Constitution, is to monitor and review the functioning of all public procurement systems to ensure that they are in accordance with law and such policy guidelines as may be determined by the National Assembly.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali addressing newly sworn-in members of the Public Procurement Commission (Photo: Office of the President/July 1, 2022)

Meanwhile, the final member of the Public Service Commission (PSC), Hakeem Mohamed was also sworn in on Friday making that commission fully functional. The PSC was sworn in on May 31, 2022, and is chaired by Bishop Patrick Findlay.

The Teaching Service Commission (TSC) and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) are the two remaining constitutional commissions to be appointed. That was supposed to be done on Friday as well, however, President Ali disclosed that issues with membership are yet to be sorted.

“We are hoping that the final set of recommendations in allowing the appointment can be made in the shortest possible timeframe so we can proceed with the appointment of these two commissions in our effort to bring all the commissions into operations which is part of our governance framework,” President Ali said.

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