ST JAMES, Jamaica — Senior law lecturer at Bangor University in Wales, Dr Ama Eyo, is calling for more sustainable procurement practices that shun corruption, bribery and collusion.

According to Dr Eyo, research shows that an estimated 10 to 20 per cent of the entire money spent on public procurement globally is wasted on bribery and corruption and only 2.81 per cent of contracts are publicly reported.

“When you are utilising the procurement system under procurement law this should not be practised… what we’re doing today around empowerment, training and development of expertise should go a long way in changing the mental well-being on how we look at the impact of corruption on procurement and it should give you some control to resist those unethical practices,” Dr Eyo was quoted as highlighting in a release from the Ministry of Finance and Planning.

She was delivering a lecture on day three of the Elevate Procurement Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James on Thursday.

The three-day conference was  held under the theme, ‘Elevate: Innovate, Create’ and hosted over 500 attendees, comprising suppliers of goods, services and works, public procurement oversight institutions, and international and regional procurement practitioners, among others.