THE House of Representatives took 30 minutes to approve amendments made by the Senate to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2023.
The House passed a motion to approve the amendments by a vote of 19-8.
The latter figure represents all opposition MPs who were present in the Parliament, who rejected the Senate's amendments.
Those amendments granted greater scrutiny of the Office of Procurement Regulator (OPR) in procurement matters and allowed for regulations to be made for the approval of contracts up to a sum of $1 million.
In concluding debate on the motion Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, disagreed with claims by Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein that the amendments added additional bureaucracy to the procurement exercise and did not give the OPR the oversight it needed on procurement matters.
The Parliament, which is currently on its annual fixed recess, was recalled to pass this bill after flaws were identified in the procurement act.
The House sat on July 19 and passed the bill with amendments, by a vote of 22-16.
The Senate met on July 20 and the bill was passed with further amendments on July 21 around 2.38 am.
Now that the House approved the Senate's amendments to the bill, it will go to President Christine Kangaloo for asset and will subsequently be proclaimed into law.
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