CONTRACTOR General Greg Christie has formally referred the names of 45 delinquent public bodies to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for failing to comply with his July 11, 2006 requisition.

The requisition, which was directed to the principal and/or accounting officers of approximately 190 public bodies, required them to submit to the Office of the Contractor General (OCG), among other things, a 2006 4th Quarter Contract Award (QCA) report by January 31, 2007.

Failure by any person, without lawful justification or excuse, to comply with a lawful requirement of a contractor general, constitutes a criminal offence under Section 29 of the 1983 Contractor General Act.

In the referral, dated March 21, 2007, Christie advised the DPP that, as at March 16, 2007, 13 of the 45 delinquent Public Bodies had still not submitted their 2006 4th Quarter QCA Reports to the OCG. March 16, 2007 was the last business day preceding the date that the OCG commenced the finalisation of its referral to the DPP.

The other 32 delinquent public bodies, Christie said, had submitted their 2006 4th Quarter QCA Reports to the OCG but had done so after the specified January 31, 2007 deadline date and before the ending of March 16, 2007.

On October 30 of last year, he had issued a formal warning of prosecution directly to the principal and/or accounting officers of approximately 190 public bodies. Among the public bodies which were then warned, are the 45 which are now being referred to the DPP for delinquency.

Christie, in outlining the case against delinquent public bodies and their officers, said that if public bodies continued to unlawfully refuse to provide the OCG with critical information regarding their award of Government contracts, then the whole purpose of having a Commission of the Contractor General, as a part of the country’s anti-corruption institutional framework, would be defeated.