The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) said it has noted with great concern the report on the front page of the two national newspapers last Thursday about the financial challenges being faced by the Office of the Contractor General (OCG).

“The PSOJ is urging the Government and Parliament to urgently address this situation by providing adequate funding for the OCG to properly execute its very important function,” said PSOJ President William Mahfood.

“The Government must ensure that bodies such as the OCG, INDECOM, and the [Office of the] Public Defender are always adequately funded,” he said, adding that failure to do so would “compromise the rights of citizens and the accountability of those charged with managing public funds”.

Mahfood said: “Parliament had a moral responsibility to adequately fund these offices, especially since any delay can be construed as the Government trying to deliberately restrict the activities of the OCG and other bodies which are to hold them accountable.

“The PSOJ notes that because of this inadequate funding, the OCG can only review 10 per cent of government contracts. We are confident that it could never be the intention of Parliament to restrict the operations of the OCG and call on them to immediately rectify this situation so that Jamaica can be assured of transparency and accountability in public sector spending.