10 changes proposed in Govt’s Procurement Bill

Akash Sama­roo

Gov­ern­ment is propos­ing sig­nif­i­cant changes to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pub­lic pro­cure­ment regime, ex­pand­ing the cat­e­gories of State spend­ing that can take place out­side the nor­mal pro­cure­ment rules while ex­press­ly lim­it­ing what the Of­fice of Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion (OPR) can do fol­low­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

The Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment and Dis­pos­al of Pub­lic Prop­er­ty (Amend­ment) Bill, 2026 al­so dou­bles the ceil­ing for cer­tain sim­pli­fied pro­cure­ments, short­ens the stand­still pe­ri­od be­fore con­tracts can pro­ceed and in­tro­duces the pos­si­bil­i­ty of le­gal costs be­ing award­ed against con­trac­tors who chal­lenge pro­cure­ment de­ci­sions.