Monday, June 30 2008

WHILE the commission of inquiry into the Urban Development Corporation (Udecott) and the construction industry is yet to come off, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Lenny Saith believes steady progress is being made toward the eventual implementation of a new public procurement regime.

Saith, who is chairman of Cabinet’s Finance and General Purposes (FGP) committee said at Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall that an FGP subcommittee formed to analyse the White Paper on Public Procurement Reform has been working rigorously and consulting stakeholders on how to fine-tune legislation.

“I think in about two weeks they will report back to FGP,” he said. Asked if Government will meet its stated deadline to implement the new regime by year end, Saith replied: “Oh yes.” In his post-Cabinet contribution, Saith dealt with an initiative which his predecessor Dr Keith Rowley was dealing with before Prime Minister Patrick Manning fired him from Cabinet – signing of the final document of a European Union (EU) Cariforum economic partnership agreement (EPA).

Saith said the final document has been “legally scrubbed” and is now being reviewed by his ministry before it goes to Cabinet. The minister said it has been proposed that the final document will be signed by EU and Cariforum in Barbados on July 23.

Saith he was unaware of any Caricom country refusing to sign the EPA. The EPA issue would be fleshed out at next week’s Caricom summit in Antigua. “What it would mean for TT if we did not sign, is most of our exports to Europe would find immediately themselves subject to additional duties,” Saith said.

“At the moment, I think the down side of not signing is greater than the upside,” Saith said.