Enforcement crucial

Sanctions and enforcement are critical for any procurement or internal audit regime to truly be effective.

 

Pointing to the Auditor General’s reports over the past years, Corporate and Financial Consultant Dr. Grenville Phillips described it as “embarrassing” that issues highlighted within these documents have not been addressed.

 

“We have had in this country, adverse report after report, made by the Auditor General, which no one seems to pay any attention to or take seriously. I put it to you that enforcement is likely to be one of your greatest challenges as you seek to devise a model for these Caribbean island states. And yet without sanction and enforcement, the outcome of the exercise upon which you embark will be nothing more than another meaningless gesture to placate ‘transparency international’ with the empty boast that we have on our statute books a regime to provide for procurement and the internal auditing of the procedure,” he asserted.

 

Making the feature presentation yesterday at the Regional Internal Audit and Public Procurement Round Table Meeting for Commonwealth Caribbean, hosted by the Public Sector Governance Unit in partnership with the Cave Hill School of Business, a straight-talking Phillips argued that Caribbean islands could no longer endure by perpetuating the ‘status quo’.

 

“There is perceived to be too much wastage, leakage and inefficiency in the administration of government spend, the consequences of which will be higher taxes to maintain essential services and/or reduced services. The expediency for an enhanced regime is urgent,” he pointed out.

 

The financial authority told those gathered that several questions would have to be answered as to the structure of the regime, including who would select the members of the regulatory body, who would it be accountable to, and what sanctions would be imposed on the political directorate and public servants for failure to follow established processes.

 

“One fact remains clear to me. If we are serious about reform and the promotion of transparency and efficiency in this region, we cannot and must not leave the structure to be determined in the hand of some minister to create a showpiece and populate it with a slate of manageable party ‘faithfuls’ who may be easily persuaded to do his or her bidding or be dismissed at his or her displeasure,” Phillips argued. (JMB)