By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 15, 2023 – The obstacle course that is the Government’s procurement processes has contributed to yet another failing in public sector operations; this time specifically bogging down the efforts to get the Turks and Caicos Islands off the infamous EU Blacklist. In an interview with Magnetic Media, E. Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance expounds on the road to getting the TCI Financial Services Sector exonerated by the OECD.
Comments obtained on Monday March 13, 2023, exposed that while the country was languishing on a grey list, DP Saunders got in contact with Kroll, one of the world’s premier financial consultants, to fix the issue.
“I reached out to them and said [told them] the issue that we’re having, and this was from last year July before we got Blacklisted— it’s just that government moves so slowly.”
The lengthy procurement time frame is not the fault of departmental employees, but rather the UK’s rigid process
which the TCI must manoeuvre in order to confirm and issue projects. It is notoriously criticized by successive elected Government Administrations.
“We didn’t get to a contract stage until after we were Blacklisted, and that contract didn’t get finalized until January of this year. In the private sector, we would have turned around a contract with them within weeks.”
Immediately after the contract was signed, around a month later, the consultants were on the ground in the Turks and Caicos.
Last year Premier Washington Misick announced nationally that his Administration was working on the speed of the procurement process; this is the third Administration to make such a statement. Further to this, anticipated amendments to parts of the TCI 2011 Constitution Order, may effect change in the tedious nature of procurement.
“Let me say that part of the issue that we do have is the slow rate at which procurement is made and we are making significant steps now working with the United Kingdom in updating the Procurement Ordinance,” said the Premier in a recorded from last July during a National Security Conference.
Following that, the Premier met with Jesse Norman, then minister of the Foreign Office, regarding crime, Crown land, and the extensive procurement process to which TCI public sector contracts are subjected.
It is expected that the issue will come up again at the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) shifted from last November to this coming May; Premier Washington Misick will co-chair the session.
The JMC now follows the coronation of King Charles lll, also in May.