CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – St. Lucia has signaled its curiosity in signing the protocol governing public procurement within the Caribbean Group (CARICOM) Single Market and Financial system (CSME).
The CSME permits for the free motion of companies, items, expertise, and labor throughout many of the 15-member regional integration motion.
Earlier this month, Castries hosted the second CARICOM Everlasting Joint Council on Public Procurement (PJCPP) assembly. A press release posted on the St. Lucia authorities web site on Monday stated, On the identical time, the island “has not but signed the protocol, it participated as an observer through the assembly, signaling its curiosity and dedication to the deliberations.”
Throughout the assembly, the director of the Barbados-based CARICOM Single Market and Financial system (CSME) Unit, Titus Preville, a former senior St. Lucia public servant, highlighted the importance of the PJCPP, noting that it could concentrate on adopting its guidelines of process. Moreover, the assembly aimed to approve proposals encompassing guidelines, pointers, norms, and requirements outlined within the protocol for administering public procurement.
Moreover, the PJCPP supposed to scrutinize its work program for 2024 to 2026, together with proposals for integrating E-Procurement into the Group Public Procurement Discover Board.
Preville stated that seven member states, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname, have signed the protocol on public procurement. The declaration to provisionally apply the protocol because it was authorized by the Convention of Heads of Authorities in St. Kitts and Nevis in 2019.
“Of the seven, Barbados and Belize have moved to ratify the protocol. In line with article 36 of the protocol, as soon as at the least 5 member states have signed the protocol and the declaration to provisionally apply it, the protocol is decided to be provisionally utilized amongst these events.
He added that the everlasting joint council will be established underneath Article 30 of the protocol because of that provisional software.
Everlasting Secretary within the Division of Finance, Francis Fontenelle, acknowledged that whereas St. Lucia nonetheless must signal the protocol, the nation has made vital strides in modernizing its procurement reform processes.
He stated the island had launched a brand new Public Procurement Act, accompanying laws, and standardized tender paperwork to streamline compliance. Moreover, an E-Procurement Platform has been carried out to boost accessibility, record-keeping, and reporting, aligning with parallel efforts throughout the CSME.
“We’re very grateful that we’re afforded observer standing to the functioning of the Everlasting Joint Council. This affords us perception into the route wherein the idea of regionally built-in public procurement is headed. We want to acknowledge the contributions made by the CARICOM Secretariat and the CSME Unit to creating public procurement within the area.”
The Everlasting Joint Council, consisting of senior commerce and public procurement specialists from member states, is tasked with implementing the provisions outlined in the neighborhood protocol on public procurement.
This council oversees the execution of the protocol’s mandates and commonly experiences to the Council for Commerce and Financial Improvement (COTED) on the protocol’s efficiency.
“Now’s the time for the remaining CARICOM and CSME member states to signal the protocol and contribute to the design of the framework that may govern the events to the protocol sooner or later,” stated Preville.
Fontenelle stated St. Lucia will proceed to pursue inner steps to make sure that the insurance policies are “sufficiently understood and accepted earlier than assimilation into our coverage framework.
“In essence, we would like all involved events to be comfy that that is acceptable to us and that it isn’t being adopted solely to satisfy an exterior requirement,” Fontenelle stated.
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