KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, is highlighting the need for a review of the role of the Cabinet in the public procurement process.

Opening the 2024/25 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Clarke said data suggest that often, the Cabinet process can take up to 25 per cent or more of the time for major procurements.

“This is because of the many micro steps involved,” he noted.

These major procurements include the following steps – preparation of the cabinet submission; submission to and review by the cabinet office; presentation to the infrastructure committee, cabinet itself, and the procuring ministry via cabinet decision a week after the cabinet meeting.

Minister Clarke emphasised the need to remove the layers to reduce delay and speed up the pace at which the Government can deliver projects to benefit the people.

He argued that, if the government is to leverage macro-stability in the people’s interest and to resolve the society’s pain points “these considerations are very much important”.

“I’m not coming with a prescription, but I am putting it out there. We have to look at [the] cabinet’s role in the procurement process. There is a good reason why there should be no role or maybe that the threshold [for procurements to go to cabinet] is set [very] high,” he said.
-JIS