- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 20/Aug 06:43

Act to avert toothless OPR

THE EDITOR: Since the UNC’s election victory on April 28, we have had several official statements on allegedly excessive legal fees paid by the state during the previous PNM administration from 2015 to 2025. Some details of those legal fees paid have now been published, which is good, since transparency on the expenditure of public money is essential if we are to have an informed engagement with these issues. The ongoing "Cepep case" is also a serious concern, as the parties appear to be battling over the existence and content of various cabinet notes and board resolutions, not to mention who said what to whom and WhatsApp messages and so on. At issue is the legitimacy/legality of the April renewal/award of various Cepep contracts said to total $1.4 billion in public money. Having read those articles, I am staggered that the reported defence of the ex-Cepep chiefs does not seem to be citing their compliance with the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act. What is more, the plaintiffs, as reported in the press, also seem to be silent on such compliance, which is what is required by the act since April 2023. As interesting as those reported details are, the decisive point in this matter is Cepep’s compliance with the act in awarding those contracts. In the "bad old days" of the previous PNM administration we saw the then AG, Faris Al Rawi, making a meal of the serious allegations of massive legal fees fraud against former PP AG Anand Ramlogan SC and newly-appointed NGC chairman, Gerald Ramdeen – the sum allegedly misappropriated was in the $1 billion region. Yet, at the very same time, the then finance minister, Colm Imbert, was exempting expenditure on legal fees from the oversight of the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR). Incredible, but that is what really happened in this country. I am referring to the fact that on December 4, 2020, our Parliament passed the third set of amendments to the act. Those exemptions were a serious blow to the long-term campaign for proper control over transactions in public money and are extremely detrimental to the public interest. The removal of legal, accounting/auditing, medical fees, and financial services, as well as government to government agreements and "such other services as the minister may, by order, determine" from OPR oversight was risible when one considers the strong and repeated statements as to concerns over the alleged legal fees and other scandals. The over-stated concerns as to speed and efficiency could have been addressed by approval limits for "procuring entities" and an obligation to make quarterly reports to the OPR. At that time, it was remarkable that the opposition UNC, as it then was, seemed unable (or was it merely unwilling?) to make those points or advance any counter proposals. We now have a freshly elected government, with its AG making loud claims about excessive legal fees paid by the previous PNM administration, with a troubling silence on the UNC position on those damaging 2020 exemptions from the act. I am not at all inspired by the disclosure of this or that legal fee, since what we need is a clear position from the UNC on the repeal of those damaging exemptions from the act. Those detrimental exemptions must now be repealed so that the public interest could be well served by comprehensive and independent oversight by the OPR, as intended when the People’s Partnership, of which the current ruling UNC was the leading element, passed the parent legislation – Act No 1 of 2015. We must avoid the errors of the past if we are to do better. If the newly-elected UNC government wishes to do better, it must act differently from the previous PNM government. It would be a serious blow to our republic if the OPR were to become yet another toothless/ineffective oversight body, like the Integrity Commission or the Auditor General. AFRA RAYMOND afraraymond.net The post Act to avert toothless OPR appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.