Procurement

Master Plan for New Government of Anguilla Building. Like most of us in Anguilla I read with interest in this week’s Anguillian Newspaper of the consultative meeting that was held on 19 February. It discussed the planned new state-of-the-art government building. The meeting was led by architect Mark Raymond of Trinidad. The report is that the meeting involved six consultants and many heads of department and other senior public servants. Mr Raymond advised that there are four planned stages. The first is the consultation, which was the meeting in question. The second was an appraisal of the project and collection of information. The third will be a schematic presentation of options. The fourth will be the actual design work. You will notice that there was no mention of procurement of goods and services or of the construction itself. Yet, that is where most of our concerns lie. We are going to be spending a lot of money in the coming years on infrastructure development. This new building is not the biggest of government’s planned projects. The others include the new terminal and multi-purpose building at Blowing Point Harbour, the new road for the Valley, and the deep water harbour at Corito.

I was reading a speech of 15 February given by another Trinidadian. He is Victor Hart. Mr Hart is the Chairman of T&T’s Transparency International. His speech was to the Institute of Structural Engineers.

Mr Hart reminded the assembled engineers that procurement means the acquisition of goods and services. On construction projects it covers the entire process from needs assessment through the project preparation, design, budgeting, tender invitation, award of contracts, and execution of the contracts. We live in a time when coping with corruption is high on the agenda of all countries. It is therefore important that we take the opportunity to discuss transparency and accountability in procurement.

Much of Anguilla’s annual budget is spent through the construction industry. Our money goes on developing infrastructure, repairs and maintenance, in schools and hospitals, clinics and offices. Procurement offers the most attractive opportunities to those who wish to corrupt the process and illegally enrich themselves.

He reminded us that corruption damages our country by causing the undertaking of projects which are unnecessary, unreliable, dangerous and over-priced. This can lead to loss of life, misuse of funds, and resultant poverty, economic damage, and underdevelopment.

Corruption damages companies. It results in uncertainty and wasted tendering expenses. It increases project costs. It reduces project opportunities. It causes extortion and blackmail. It contributes to money laundering. It can result in criminal prosecutions, fines, blacklisting, reputation risk, and resultant job losses.

It damages individuals. It causes reduced morale, induces a sense of hopelessness in industry professionals. These face criminal prosecution, fines and imprisonment.

Transparency and accountability are the main antidotes for corruption. It takes our architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, building, plumbing and electrical contractors, and related professionals becoming conscious of the problem. We need them to come together to join the fight against corruption. As Mr Hart points out, the advantage for them is that they will not spend time dealing with the consequences of a playing field that is not level because of corruption in the procurement process. The result will be increased peace of mind, job satisfaction, and levels of productivity and profitability.

The building sector in Anguilla is essentially lawless and unregulated. The Building Code is a long-standing joke. It exists only in the minds of shameless members of the Building Board. There are no published standards or regulations. As with Barbados, the Code is applied depending on the whim of whichever functionary you are dealing with. My fear is that it might come to be so, also, with public procurement.

I trust that we are going to hear next of steps being taken to ensure that the procurement process for the new government building will be more transparent than it was in the airport extension project two years ago. From all reports, there are still unanswered questions connected with that project.