The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A well-known contractor yesterday suggested Bahamian politicians did not want to pass legislation to regulate the industry because it would prevent them “giving out contracts to cronies”.

Stephen Wrinkle, the Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president, told Tribune Business that with successive governments seemingly having little appetite to pass the Contractors Bill and reform the public procurement process, this nation might have to rely on external forces for change.

He suggested that this nation’s impending membership of more rules-based trading regimes, particularly the World Trade Organisation (WTO), could drive reform as they mandated transparency and openness with public procurement contracts.

“Everybody is in agreement that the procurement process here is deficient,” Mr Wrinkle told Tribune Business. “When you’re talking about millions of dollars for no bid contracts, that in principle far from ideal.

“They should have the public opening of the bids with the contractors invited to tender all present.”

The Wrinkle Development Company chief added: “It’s a pressing fact that contracts that have been let out without a due bidding process in the past have had loads of defects. It’s a known fact.”

Mr Wrinkle seemingly agreed with much in the US government’s 2014 Investment Climate report on the Bahamas, when it said the Government’s tendering and public procurement processes lacked transparency and were prone to “undue interference” politically, with contracts handed to party supporters and relatives.

Mr Wrinkle said such practices, and the desire to continue with them unhindered, had contributed to the failure by successive administrations to pass the long-awaited Contractors Bill.

“This is why no government wants to pass the Contractors Bill,” he added, suggesting it would create an obstacle to “the ability of governments to give contracts to cronies.

“It’s a shame but the Bahamian consumer is the one that pays the price for this, as there is no protection on their home building.”

The draft Contractors Bill would create a certification system to licence every Bahamas-based contractor according to their ability, and indicate the complexity and size of jobs they could handle competently.

This would effectively create a ‘horses for courses’ regime, and weed out those contractors that were incompetent or had other flaws. It may not be made to measure, though, for a procurement awards system often based on patronage. The Government, though, has repeatedly said the Bill has been delayed due to difficulties in bringing electrical contractors into its orbit - and away from existing legislation.

Calling for a ‘third party’ to oversee government contract awards, Mr Wrinkle said: “It needs to be transparent. We need transparency.

“We need a committee, somebody who’s unbiased, a third party that can come in and review. In our system of government we don’t get that. There’s no checks and balances.

“The majority party in government does what they want, when they want, with whomever they want. Unless we fundamentally change our way of doing business, we’re not going to get different results,” he added.

‘The only thing that will get us out of this mess will be the desire to join the WTO.”

Such rules-based trading bodies mandate transparency on government contracts, something that could finally force change in the Bahamas.

Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance, has previously told the House of Assembly that planned public procurement reforms could save the Government up to 20 per cent in this area.

However, these reforms have yet to be enacted. Mr Halkitis said draft regulations envisaged creating a Public Procurement Board, which will replace the existing Tenders Board.

This will be supported by the creation of a Public Procurement Department within the Ministry of Finance, headed by a chief procurement officer, and aggrieved bidders will have the opportunity to appeal Board decisions to a Public Procurement Review Tribunal.

There have been no updates on this work, so it is difficult to gauge how much progress - if any - has been made. Yet Government contracts are a vital tool of national development, as they provide the opportunity for Bahamian-owned businesses to grow an thrive.

Mr Halkitis also said the proposed reforms would bring the Bahamas into line with its Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) commitments. This implies that the Bahamas is non-compliant with its obligations under the trade deal with the European Union (EU) and Caribbean.

This, sources have suggested, is another reason why the US report should have come as no surprise to the Government or Bahamian public.

They said the Government’s initial submissions/offers in the EPA had conceded that public procurement processes in this nation were deficient, and successive administrations had held “numerous meetings” seeking technical assistance and funding to “build capacity” in this area.

The Bahamas has thus far avoided any EPA-related scrutiny, as this would only occur if a firm from the EU or Caribbean complained about a specific public procurement process.

Yet the EPA requires such opportunities to be advertised to all and sundry. And Ryan Pinder, minister of financial services, was recently in Geneva dealing with questions from the Bahamas’ main trading partners - some of which will have focused on public procurement - in preparation for the third meeting of the Working Group dealing with this nation’s WTO accession.

Mr Wrinkle, meanwhile, acknowledged that public procurement weaknesses often meant Bahamian taxpayers did not get value for money.

‘It’s not a good situation,” he told Tribune Business. “There seems to be very little restraint and control over taxpayers’ money. It’s one deal after the other. It goes on unabated. It’s not just one government or party; it’s all of them.”