Outdated procurement laws are contributing to delays in vendor payments across the BVI, Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley told the House of Assembly recently.
Speaking during a question-and-answer session, Dr Wheatley revealed that while the government had raised the threshold for contracts requiring formal agreements from $10,000 to $25,000, some departments are still operating under conflicting legal interpretations. The problem, he said, stems from not repealing old sections in the Public Finance Management Act after a new standalone Procurement Act was passed.
“The Procurement Act says very clearly, as it pertains to procurement, that the threshold for having a signed contract is now $25,000. Everything else is… work orders and purchase orders,” the Premier explained.
However, Opposition Member Marlon Penn argued that some government departments are still adhering to the outdated rules, creating confusion and unnecessary delays.
“I did receive some information that some persons were interpreting that the Public Finance Management Act … the part of it that deals with procurement — has to be repealed,” Dr Wheatley stated.
According to the Premier, the government should have repealed the relevant sections in the Public Finance Management Act when it brought a new standalone Procurement Act to the House of Assembly.
Dr Wheatley said the Ministry of Finance is now working to fix the issue. “What I’ll do… is I will just instruct the Financial Secretary to prepare that amendment exclusive of all of the other wide-ranging amendments because it is taking very long, so we can go ahead and repeal those sections so that there’s no conflict between the two acts,” he announced.
Dr Wheatley’s comments followed concerns raised in the House about open vouchers totalling nearly $22 million in unpaid commitments to vendors, including small businesses and participants in government programmes.
He admitted the system is too slow and pledged improvements. “We do take too long to pay vendors in many instances, and it’s something that I would like to see fixed,” he stated. “We can always do a better job.”
While acknowledging that some of the open vouchers may not reflect completed work, Dr Wheatley said reconciliation is underway. “It has to be a reconciliation exercise to see actually which one of those open vouchers represents monies which need to be paid to vendors,” he noted.
The Premier also commended efforts by the Treasury and Financial Services accounts units to speed up payments in some areas but insisted that full legal clarity and improved processes are necessary to meet vendor expectations.
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