National Council members yesterday insisted on enacting a separate law on Public Procurement following vague response from the finance ministry on its recommendation. The Council proposed for an Act during the last session.
The members recommended on enacting the Act to ensure good governance and efficient utilization of public resources. There is no law on Public Procurement for which the government allocates half of its annual budget.
“The response from the Finance ministry states that a policy is in its draft stage to implement the Act. But there is no mention of whether the ministry will implement the act once the draft is finalized or if the ministry plans to keep it as a policy,” said Samtse MP, Sangay Khandu.
Citing example in Dagana where a road construction works stopped in 2015 after a year it was started, MP Sonam Dorji said, “Nobody was held accountable saying the system is flawed for not having proper rules and regulations.” The MP added though the contractors were compensated with over Nu 200 million by the government, “but the government does not have money to provide people with proper drinking water facilities.”
Responding to the council’s recommendations, the finance ministry stated that drafting of acts rests with the Office of Attorney General and that the ministry has no authority to draft acts.
“There are two responses from the ministry. This year in its response the ministry mentioned it is recommending OAG to draft the Bill. I suppose, the ministry has to forward the drafting of Bill to OAG instead of recommending. So we have to keep in mind, the country spends such huge expenditure on public procurement, without a regulation or act, instead run by draft policy as is mentioned by the ministry. So we should question why the ministry has not been able to finalise. Or if the ministry is going to implement the Bill,” said NC Chairperson Sonam Kinga.
The council members will write or sit for question answer session with the ministry if deemed important.
