THE EDITOR: How can a white paper published in 2005 take until 2023 to be proclaimed? Approximately 15,000 children were born in TT in 2005, and as of this year those children are adults. Something is deeply wrong with a system that takes the same time in which a person transitions from birth to adulthood to proclaim a simple piece of legislation. The legislation has been bouncing around for 18 years.

Successive governments ignored the procurement bill because such legislation, along with the establishment of a fully functioning Office of Procurement Legislation (OPRTT), would likely put a spoke in their corruption wheel and add transparency to the awarding of contracts.

The theft of billions of dollars could have been prevented if we had a fully functional ORPTT according to acceptable legislation. We cannot underestimate the lost opportunity to have invested those stolen funds to take care of our social needs: health, education, utilities and infrastructure, and more.

With a structured, transparent approach to procurement, our levels of honesty and integrity would have been different.

It's commendable that after eight years in office this government has ensured the proclamation of the procurement legislation. Despite the three amendments to the law and regulations, we are finally ready to proceed with adding order, transparency and good governance to the awarding of contracts.

Five years ago, on January 12, 2018, the president appointed Moonilal Lalchan as chairman/procurement regulator and this gave several of us hope that, finally, our country was on the way to regularising the award of contracts and ultimately ensuring that the back-room deals would be reduced.

I never imagined that Lalchan would have occupied office for five years and be unable to implement the law. I hope the Government sees the value in having him reappointed as chairman/procurement regulator. Undoubtedly, he is the most competent person to ensure that the office can hit the ground running and not be stymied by a new appointee who is unlikely to have Lalchan's experience.

If we are to change the 'corruption culture' of our society, the leadership must change the way it does business. Swiss psychiatrist Carl G Jung is credited with the statement: 'You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.'

So we can talk about corruption till the cows come home, but if there are no systems, processes and procedures in place to ensure order, good governance and integrity, we will continue to experience the chaos and crime which typify our daily existence.

DENNISE DEMMING

Diego Martin

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