Harrison wants steeper penalties for Contractor General Act breaches

Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer

Contractor General Dirk Harrison wants stiffer penalties for persons found guilty of trying to frustrate investigations being conducted by his office, calling the current sanctions a slap on the wrist.

The proposal was among a raft of measures Harrison outlined yesterday that are aimed at strengthening and streamlining the process for the award of government contracts.

Noting that the maximum fine for breaches of the Contractor General Act is $5,000, Harrison suggested that the punishment for anyone found guilty of obstructing his investigations or any other breach of the act should be brought in line with the powers of a resident magistrate.

"In a case where we are able to obtain a conviction, a $5,000 fine is, in a sense, a slap on the wrist," Harrison said yesterday as he addressed the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kingston at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew.

Proposal gets NIA nod

The proposal was immediately embraced by the watchdog group, National Integrity Action (NIA), and the influential Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ).

Executive Director of the NIA Professor Trevor Munroe took it a step further, urging lawmakers to act swiftly to ensure that the fines for breaches of the Contractor General Act "are no longer a tap on the wrist".

PSOJ president Christopher Zacca, however, cautioned that any move to implement stiffer penalties must be complemented by a review of the Government's procurement regulations.

Harrison, who has been mandated to monitor the award and implementation of government contracts, also recommended the creation of what he called a fair and robust performance-based contractor-assessment system.

This, he argued, could be used to sanction or consider the de-registration of underperforming contractors for prescribed and defined periods.