Government
PPID Minister plans to Milk New Procurement Ceiling, here’s why
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 9, 2023 – The Ministry of Physical Planning and Infrastructure Development is making full use of the increased government procurement ceiling with a call for all MPs to table the small projects they need completed.
The procurement ceiling was raised to $100,000 recently and Jamell Robinson, Minister of PPID, says his ministry will be using it to benefit islanders under the Community Enhancement Project.
“We’ve already busted the budget, we can’t wait until the new budget cycle comes around so we can do our sidewalks that people need, we can do speed bumps. We can do any innovative thing that a community may want and ideally
In order to achieve this Robinson says he has made contact with his colleagues across the TCI Government.
“Since I’ve taken over this role I’ve reached out to all the MPs because the idea is that they would have the pulse on the ground for their constituencies more than me, an all island MP, to make sure that we’re not just delivering things but we’re actually delivering things that people want and appreciate.”
He explained that he had already mentioned to the Premier that he wanted to use the ministry’s budget allocation fairly early in the next budget cycle so that more money could be allocated for even more projects in each supplementary.
He maintained that the aim was to get at least half a million dollars’ worth of combined community projects done over the next budget cycle, acknowledging that sometimes material work had been slow in coming.
“If we can do a million then we do a million but we’re aiming for at least [half] because I think it’s important for us to deliver these tangible things. It took almost 2 years to deliver the Housing policy and a year to deliver the National Physical Development Plan. While we chase our big goals, the Community Enhancement Project can help us deliver our smaller goals in the meantime,” he promised.