Public procurement has NOT been considered a central pillar of the government’s effort to improve public transparency and good public governance in Dominica.. The present government of Dominica has failed to acknowledge that an effective public procurement system is essential for good governance and as a result the poor public procurement system in Dominica results in inefficiencies, public corruption, higher costs to the government and ultimately wastage of public funds.
In recent times, there have been several complaints with regard to alleged corruption in public procurement in Dominica. The Dominican public has expressed distrust of public officials and concerns over the lack of probity and integrity in government’s procurement process. This has had the effect of discouraging good firms, both national and foreign, from participating in government’s solicitation exercises, thus depriving the country from access to better prices and higher quality goods, works, and services.
Dominica, like most developing countries, is not a party to the plurilateral WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and the country does not have any specific or modern procurement legislation /office. Most of government’s purchases are on a ministerial basis, although tender boards are established on an ad hoc basis for large purchases such as construction projects. Public procurement legislation is under consideration as part of the CARICOM harmonization of laws project and is said to be based on examples from similar existing laws in other Caribbean countries. The pending legislation will be based on best practices in the choice of modalities and other aspects of public procurement.
As signatories to the agreement establishing WTO, CARICOM Member States are already participating in negotiations on certain transparency-related aspects of government procurement. Their commitment goes much further in the FTAA process, where the aim is to negotiate a WTO-plus hemispheric regime of rights and obligations relating to government procurement. As part of the FTAA negotiations, for example, participating countries have been requested to submit statistical and other data to the Negotiating Group on Government Procurement, one of nine groups set up to negotiate the FTAA agreement. Under the Regional Program, entitled “Government Procurement Frameworks in the Caribbean Community: Towards a Regional Best-Practice Regime for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy.”
The status of the public procurement legislative framework in Dominica has not advanced since the issuance of a 2003 Country Procurement Assessment Report (Report No. 30975-DM) on Dominica, which was prepared by the Operations Support Unit (OSU), World Bank. The report found inter alia;
• The legislative and regulatory framework of public procurement in Dominica is outdated and requires substantial revision. Significant gaps contribute to distorting practices and the widespread perception that the system lacks transparency. The system is inefficient and possesses a high fiduciary risk. The lack of transparency itself is a major cause for inefficiency, potential corruption and high costs. This causes significant negative impact on trade, investment, and economic growth in the country;
• A comprehensive revision of the system should be carried out in the context of the regional harmonization effort;
• A sound regulatory framework for public procurement would help reduce many opportunities for corrupt practices, which engenders the confidence in the business community and civil society and would give the clear signal that procurement practices are fair and transparent;
• There is a need for increased mechanism for oversight of government’s procurement expenditures;
• Current procurement rules are obsolete and lost relevance. The rules provide for institutions which never came into existence such as the Public Tendering Board and
• the value of government procurement of the country is very limited with the majority of capital investments being financed by external sources.

The question is, in light of the numerous allegations of corruption and misuse of public funds, I am interested in knowing what will the UWP or the Freedom party propose to update and modernize the legal and regulatory framework of public procurement in Dominica?