The Procurement Department within the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management this week, began a series of consultation meetings with their stakeholders, as part of the review of the 2019 Procurement Regulations.
This review is part of efforts to improve Montserrat’s public procurement regulations, while at the same time ensuring that all stakeholders have the opportunity to provide comments on the regulations and what is needed for Montserrat to promote sustainable development and opportunities for local people as well as value for money on goods, services and works. The Procurement Department aims to have a new set of regulations by March 2021.
By conducting this review, Montserrat will be able to work to improve areas for strengthening which were identified by the ‘Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems’ (MAPS) following its implementation across the Caribbean by a leading team of experts tasked with assessing each country and producing a report on its findings. This procurement assessment system was developed by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and DFID (Barbados) in 2018, which is now the global tool for assessing procurement operations.
The Procurement Department said CDB has agreed to provide consultancy support to countries to meet the MAPS requirements and improve procurement systems incorporating global best practice. The company working with CDB is called Charles Kendall and the two experts that will carry out the stakeholder engagement on Montserrat are, Scott Dickens and Peter Trepte.
“We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to have their say whether in an open session or through a method of choice. We want to ensure that both suppliers and consumers are part of the change process,” expressed Head of Procurement, Ms. Harjinder Jutle.
The stakeholder engagement sessions will continue until December 19, 2020. The sessions will be held at different locations and times in an effort to make it convenient for stakeholders to attend. A schedule of the various sessions will be advertised throughout this period.
Individuals who would like to make input or share their feedback, and are unable to attend one of the sessions, can contact Procurement Officer, Nezry Fenton, via email at fentonn@gov.ms and copied to the Head of Procurement, Ms. Harjinder Jutle at jutleh@gov.ms .
Once the consultation process has been completed the consultants will prepare a report, and the Procurement Department will share a briefing note with comments, questions and responses raised during the consultations process with all stakeholders.
