Commentary

WE AGREE with Peter Bunting's suggestion of the need for a debate on how the Government should, in the future, handle unsolicited proposals from vendors for goods and services.

Mr Bunting, a parliamentarian and the general secretary of the Opposition People's National Party (PNP), used to head a merchant bank. In 2004, when he was not in those political posts, and with the PNP forming the Government, Mr Bunting's bank packaged a deal to buy government receivables and on-sell them to the market. The administration, facing a fiscal crisis, accepted.

The current finance minister, Audley Shaw, claimed it was a "sweetheart deal" for Mr Bunting's bank. He felt that the discounts of the receivables were too deep and a fee charged by Mr Bunting's bank too high, a claim Mr Bunting rejects.

Contractor General Greg Christie could not come to a conclusion on whether the Government got value for money because the offer was not put to public tender, which may have been a technical breach of procurement guidelines.

This matter of how governments deal with unsolicited proposals is tricky, as this administration itself discovered with the divestment of a radio frequency that did not go to public tender. The Government explained that to do so would have compromised an entrepreneur who structured a creative deal and that it was not about rewarding friends.

The logic of the debate is clear.

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