Submitted by Old Onion Bags

The call has been made umpty times now on BU for Barbados to have a Contractor General. For those wondering what are the duties of such a noble sounding  executive officer, in a nutshell….”to assist government in the fair advertising, soliciting, and final disbursements of contracts for services and purchase of major worth.” More detailed….

The Contractor General is given the onus to monitor the award and the implementation of government contracts with a view to ensuring that —

1. such contracts are awarded impartially and on merit;
2. the circumstances in which each contract is awarded or, as the case may be, terminated, do not involve impropriety or irregularity;
3. without prejudice to the functions of any public body in relation to any contract, the implementation of each such contract conforms to the terms thereof; and
4. to monitor the grant, issue, suspension or revocation of any prescribed licence, with a view to ensuring that the circumstances of such grant, issue, suspension or revocation do not involve impropriety or irregularity and, where appropriate, to examine whether such licence is used in accordance with the terms and conditions thereof.  (Courtesy Jamaica’s Office of Contractor General).

If we in Barbados are serious about stamping out all forms of pandering and corruption gotten via contract negotiations by governmental officials, the office of Contractor General needs to be legislated and functioning as soon as possible. Such will assist in highlighting transparency in all governmental contract dealings and will go hand in hand with our proposed Integrity Legislation Act.

Consider for more details this link. Time for showing we are serious about going forward, is present and awaits the true Sir Lancelot. Will they step up to the plate?