New Public Procurement Bill Proposed

During Monday’s 18th Meeting of the Legislative Assembly, Premier and Minister of Finance Reuben T. Meade tabled the Public Procurement Bill 2025, which proposes comprehensive reforms to Montserrat’s procurement framework. The Public Procurement Bill seeks to update and modernise the law relating to the procurement of goods, works and services by ministries, departments, units, any subdivision of the Government and Government owned entities.

“This act also speaks to giving local suppliers a certain leg up up to about 20% of any procurement. This allows an outside contractor, the flexibility of utilizing local services up to 20% or in fact, a local tender can get a benefit of 15 to 20%… 15% advantage over an external tender,” the Minister of Finance explained.

Among the issues raised was the current $5,000 XCD threshold requiring quotations for public contracts, a figure the Opposition Leader Paul Lewis deemed outdated.

Lewis urged the Assembly to consider adjusting the thresholds to reflect inflation and the real cost of doing business today.

“Inflation and evolving market conditions have rendered these numbers inadequate,” he argued. “I therefore urge this house to champion the raising of procurement thresholds across all tiers. Let us empower our departments to work with greater agility and efficiency cut out needless bureaucracy and ensuring that our processes reflect the true cost of doing business in Montserrat. By modernising these limits, we not only streamline operations, but also reaffirm our commitment to responsible stewardship and sound governance, through strengthening parliamentary and cabinet oversight.”

In response, Premier Meade said the new legislation includes provisions for uplifting the procurement limits and a formalised structure for evaluating and awarding public contracts. The bill also introduces clear guidelines around procurement transparency, local supplier empowerment, conflict of interest mitigation, and appeal procedures.

The Procurement Bill was read for a second time and passed to the committee stage for further consideration.