SENIOR LAW LECTURER FROM THE UK CALLS FOR MORE SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT PRACTICES

­­­­­­­­­­­Kingston, Jamaica: Thursday, April 25, 2024

Dr. Ama Eyo, Senior Law Lecturer at Bangor University is calling for more sustainable procurement practices that shun corruption, bribery and collusion. She was delivering a lecture on Day 3 of the Elevate Procurement Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Thursday, April 25, 2024.

According to Dr Eyo, research shows that an estimated 10 – 20 per cent of the entire money spent on public procurement is wasted on bribery and corruption and only 2.81% of contracts are publicly reported.

“When you are utilising the procurement system under procurement law this should not be practised… what we’re doing today around empowerment, training and development of expertise should go a long way in changing the mental well-being on how we look at the impact of corruption on procurement and it should give you some control to resist those unethical practices,” Dr Eyo highlighted.

Dr Eyo, who is from Africa and is the College Dean of Education and Student Experience in the United Kingdom, also spoke against the use of “tenderpreneurship” in the procurement system. The term is explained as a businessperson in South Africa who leverages their political connections to obtain government procurement contracts, also known as “tenders,” frequently in exchange for benefits or favours.

“Make sure that the people winning the contracts are not fronts for other people. This is something that is prevalent in South Africa where contracts are meant to go to certain categories of South Africans but the owners of those companies are fronts for other people, this is something you need to be aware of,” warned Dr Eyo.

The three-day conference is being held under the theme, ‘Elevate: Innovate, Create’ and is hosting over 500 attendees comprising suppliers of goods, services and works, public procurement oversight institutions, and international and regional procurement practitioners, among others.

Day 3 of the conference will also conclude with presentations from Ms Cheyenne McClarthy, Senior Director, Public Procurement Commission, Leslie Elizabeth-Harper, Senior Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank, Andrei Bennett, Chief Public Procurement Policy Officer, Ministry of Finance and the Public Service and a networking cocktail event.

–30–

For further information contact:

Corporate Communication & Public Relations Branch

Ministry of Finance and the Public Service

30 National Heroes Circle, Kingston 4

Tel: (876) 932-4656/4660/4655

Email: Shakiel.Rochester-Shorter@mof.gov.jm; Suzell.Wray@mof.gov.