00:00These amendments, Mr. Speaker, will give new life to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises seeking to do business with
00:08the state.
00:09How can the PNM vote against that, Mr. Speaker?
00:12Finance Minister Devindranath Tunku in the House of Representatives as he piloted the 2026 bill for new amendments to the
00:20Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act.
00:23Public utilities, specifically water, electricity and power generation, in cases of an emergency, should be exempted from public procurement.
00:33The government is of the considered view that national security should also be a separate exemption
00:40because procurement undertaken for defence, intelligence, policing, border security, protective services and other national security purposes
00:49may involve confidentiality, operational sensitivity, urgency and restricted information.
00:57Opposition MP Stuart Young made reference to legislation passed during the 2010-2015 UNC-led government
01:04as he spoke about the 2026 amendments to the Procurement Act.
01:08This is Section 34 on steroids. Let them mark these words once again very carefully.
01:14What we are seeing here today is UNC government policy dictated by financiers.
01:25The very specific and carefully chosen areas for exemption.
01:30The finance minister had a direct message for the opposition.
01:33For those opposite, PNM means people never matter.
01:37I start, Mr. Speaker, by saying them, by calling them all for what they are.
01:42They are hypocrites, Mr. Speaker.
01:47They want the existing status quo to remain because contracts were only for a handful of friends, family and finances.
01:55Make the rich richer.
01:56Let the poor suffer, Mr. Speaker.
01:59It is time to break that vicious PNM cycle, Mr. Speaker.
02:03MP Young made reference to the Office of the Procurement Regulator, the OPR.
02:07It will not only facilitate corruption, but what it will do is gut the OPR, and I will keep repeating
02:16it.
02:17It will gut the OPR, take away its specific powers or powers that they have been applying,
02:24and make it more difficult for any oversight, any transparency, and worse yet, value for money.
02:31The exemptions include state procurement regarding the energy sector.
02:35However, these exemptions are so drafted that they do not constitute an unrestricted exclusion from accountability.
02:44Appropriate safeguards, reporting requirements, internal approvals, audit requirements,
02:51and where appropriate, procurement guidelines will continue to apply.
02:59The debate on the bill for the new amendments to the Procurement Act continued in the House of Representatives on
03:05Wednesday night.
03:06Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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