Public Procurement: Can we ever clean up the corruption?

This article forms part of the Private Sector/Civil Society publication ‘Public Procurement Special’ in the Trinidad & Tobago Review and is published here with the permission of one of the authors. The lessons for Barbados are there if we care to look.

Consider some of the quotes from the article…

“The largest State projects were being executed outside of any normal system of accountability.”

“Some of the features of these fiascos are –

• Huge cost over-runs on virtually every project.
• Unfinished projects which virtually no one can make sense of…
• A gross burden on our Treasury going forward – The continuing delay in completing the accounts for these State Enterprises shows how difficult it is to work out exactly what the State owes and to whom.”

The authors are talking about Trinidad and Tobago but it sure sounds like Bridgetown to me.