OCG’s positions costing the country millions, really now ?

A senior public official has suggested that the country could save more money if the Government rejects some of the positions of the Office of the Contractor General (OCG).

Managing director of Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited, Coy Roache, made the declaration at yesterday morning’s post-Cabinet press briefing.

 

I do not need to defend the OCG, they can do that themselves, but as a citizen of this country I feel forced to respond to the comments of this misguided public official.

Let’s first examine broadly the functions of the OCG.

Well the main function of the OCG is to ENSURE that the GOJ procurement guidelines are strictly adhered to, which helps to support transparency and lessen corruption.

Why did we have the OCG?

Well because public officials like Coy, would frequently flout the GOJ procurement guidelines , thus opening up the process to possible corrupt acts by public officials.

So clearly having the procurement rules in place, without a body to enforce them did not work, which led the GOJ to form the OCG.  This means the procurement guidelines for the most part preceded the OCG,following me so far.

So the OCG does NOT make the procurement guidelines/rules, these are formulated by the GOJ and all the OCG does is to interpret these and seek to ensure that all public officials abide by these rules.

Mr Roache, you cannot have rules in place and then you turn around and bypass these very rules, as that only leads to chaos and soon , that will lead to a complete breakdown of the established process.

Mr Roache comments are not only misguided but unfortunately its the position of many other public sector officials who continue to beat up the Office of the Contractor General vs focusing their attention on where it ought to be.

Sometimes when rules are put in place, its done so to address a specific weakness or gap in the existing system. Now overtime you will find that with a better understanding of the system via education, training etc, you will find that those rules are no longer relevant and can be removed  from the process.

If we believe that the rules are no longer relevant, then people like Mr Roache should seek to have the GOJ not the OCG, remove these provisions, rules and or guidelines from the process and the OCG will have NO OTHER choice but to follow those newly established guidelines.

How can one expect the OCG to bend the rules that were drafted by the highest body in the Jamaica, which  is the legislature and place into law, that would constitute a breach, is that what Mr Roache expects.

Mr Roache the rules are made by the Government of Jamaica and not the OCG, so your comments that the Government of Jamaica should sometimes intervene and by pass the position of the OCG is to say the Government should ignore rules of the same Government, how smart is that.

If the country is losing millions, its the fault of the government and not the OCG !

Bless.