SINCE the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) launched its online registration portal, the Supplier Registration System (SRS) a year ago, more than 800 companies which have used the online platform have been approved to do business with Government of Jamaica entities.

The SRS, which was launched on May 3, 2021, is the medium for registration for all suppliers and contractors who are seeking to engage in income-generating activities by supplying public sector organisations with goods, services and infrastructural works. The SRS is accessible anywhere and at any time.

Public procurement is the acquisition of goods, services and works using public funds to undertake government contracts, in an economical and effective manner.

The PPC is an entity within the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service which was established on April 1, 2019. The commission was established in compliance with the Public Procurement Act, 2015.

The PPC has responsibility for, among other things, public procurement reviews and approvals, supplier registration, contract monitoring and evaluation, standard setting, and information management in the sphere of public procurement.

Lieutenant Commander (retired) Paul Wright, executive director, PPC, said the organisation has approved a total of 884 businesses as registered suppliers to engage in public procurement during the last fiscal year which ran from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

One hundred and thirteen more suppliers were registered for the financial year 2021/2022 in comparison to the financial year 2020/2021 — that represents 14.6 per cent increase in supplier registration.

“The 2021/2022 financial year was dominated by COVID restrictions which negatively impacted the operations of many businesses, yet we were able to attract more Jamaicans to register to do business with Government,” the PPC executive director says. “This positive upswing in registration was mostly fuelled by the fact that SRS offered a high level of convenience by way of the Internet for suppliers to register during the COVID restrictions,” Lt Cdr Wright said.

He added: “The PPC is responsible for registering approved suppliers to Government entities as well as maintaining the registry of such registrations, in keeping with the Public Procurement Act, 2015, Section 11 (C). To this end, the PPC ensures that applications for supplier registration are comprehensively reviewed and submitted to the PPC board of commissioners for approval on a timely basis.”

SRS provides significant convenience to the applicant and greatly reduces the application processing time. A processing time of eight weeks for renewal of applications is stipulated by the standard operating procedure of the PPC, which is guided by the Public Procurement (Registration and Classification of Suppliers) Regulations, 2019, Regulation 4 (2) .

The PPC executive director outlined that the average processing time for applications for registration or renewal of registration using the SRS is “approximately 50 per cent less than the eight weeks specified by the standard operating procedure”.

Under its previous applications system, the Contracts Management System (CMS), the PPC accepted applications via hard copy and e-mail. Now all applicants use the ultra-modern SRS, which offers significant convenience and greatly minimises the application processing time.

With the use of SRS, the processing time was reduced dramatically for financial year 2021/2022. The average processing time for quarters one and two of that financial year was 4.2 weeks

Captain Richard Campbell, senior director, Suppliers Registration and Licensing Branch, PPC, said the processing time trends for supplier registration and renewal of registration is moving down.

“The average processing time in quarters three and four was 3.2 weeks — approximately one week less than that for quarters one and two. The Suppliers Registration and Licensing Branch is confident that the significant decrease in processing time will continue for all applications, as the SRS has been a key tool in allowing the branch to improve its efficiency and effectiveness.”