Office of the Deputy Governor

The Deputy Governor, Franz Manderson established a Working Group to develop a new framework for procurement and report to the Deputy Governor. The Working Group was chaired by Mrs. Karin Thompson the Chair of the Commission for Standards in Public Life. Other Members of the Working Group were representatives from the Ministry of Finance (Michael Nixon), Deputy Governor’s Office (Peter Gough), Cabinet Office (Tim Hubbell) Central Tenders Committee (Nick Freeland), a Chief Officer (Alan Jones) with experience in procurement and a Member from the Commission for Standards in Public Life (Nyda Flatley), plus Max Jones, Reshma Sharma and Tom Van Zanten.

The main recommendation was the establishment of a three person Central Procurement Office (CPO) to be headed by a suitably qualified and experienced Director of Procurement. The CPO will be responsible for, inter alia, establishing procurement policies and procedures, developing and maintaining standard government procurement documentation, procurement oversight, carrying out some centralized procurement, advising government entities on procurement and training of employees involved in procurement. The CPO will also undertake contract and post implementation reviews.

There were two reports issued by the Office of the Auditor General in July and August 2011 that were critical of the management of procurement. The main criticisms were:

• Procurement does not provide for Value for Money
• Lack of transparency
• No procurement expertise
• Political interference
• Risk of Fraud and corruption
• Board involvement in procurement
• Lack of corporate procurement information
• No fundamental principles for procurement
• No policy for local business development
• No business cases for procurement
• No code of conduct for persons involved in procurement
• Only one procurement method (open tendering)

To address the Auditor General’s concerns the new regime, supported by a law, regulations, policies and procedures will be:-

• Improving Governance
• Increasing Transparency
• Improving Reporting
• Limiting political involvement to the policy level
• Improving Value for money
• Providing different procurement methods
• Improving procurement management information
• Developing a Procurement Code of Conduct
• Developing a Local business development strategy 

A Procurement Law Committee was set up with a membership of Mr. Peter Gough - Deputy Governor’s Office (Chairman),Mr. Nick Freeland - Central Tenders Committee, Mr. Alan Jones - Chief Officer, Mr. Max Jones – PWD, Mr. Alastair Swarbrick – Auditor General (Advisor), Mr. Craig Milley- Director, Central Procurement, Delores Gordon, - Director, Internal Audit, Maureen Benjamin- Legal Drafting. This Committee produced the Procurement Bill which will be debated in the Legislative Assembly in October 2016