GOVT WEAKENING OPR

Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles has expressed concern over proposed changes to the Procurement Act, claiming the Government is weakening the country’s procurement watchdog while expanding ministers’ powers to exempt public spending from the law.

Beckles, in a post on her Facebook page yesterday, said the proposed legislation would strip the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) of critical powers to intervene when procurement goes wrong.

She questioned why the Government was seeking to remove powers which had already been used by the OPR to intervene in a multi-billion-dollar public housing procurement process.