Amendments to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Bill, 2026, could address bottlenecks and delays and help boost or restart projects in the local energy sector.
Debating the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property (Amendment) Bill, 2026, in the Lower House on Wednesday, Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo assured that its main objective is to mitigate delays and accelerate public service delivery.
The Minister says it will address bottlenecks faced by public bodies and streamline what he described as overly rigid procedures of the Office of Procurement Regulation.
Amendments to Section 7 of the Bill maintains the purpose of the standstill period while avoiding unnecessary delays in the commencement of projects.
“We also propose that regulation 7 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of the Public Property Evaluation Regulations 2021 should be amended to reduce the prescribed standstill period from not fewer than 10 and not more than 15 working days to not fewer than 5 and not more than 10 working days.”
Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Dr Roodal Moonilal, pointed out that the amendments will significantly benefit the energy sector, citing written submissions from major oil and gas companies, including Paria Fuel and NGC.
“I begin by telling you that we have been pre-occupied 24 hours a day with this matter of the refinery restart; the biggest issue that constrains us and makes us move in a very slow manner is the OPR. All these submissions tell us that this bill clause four, for example, I guess, will benefit the refinery restart by accelerating the restart timeline by removing potential delays. Which are inherent in the current OPR process.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein refuted claims by the Opposition that the government is gutting the legislation, noting that if a contractor challenges the OPR under Section 50 Subsection 4, the OPR has the power to suspend the procurement proceedings.
“And Mr Speaker, after the OPR does a public interest investigation into a complaint, under Section 45, they can still report the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions if there is any wrongdoing. So what we are doing right now with this, Mr Speaker, is not taking away our power. We are clarifying the powers of the OPR under the original legislation. So it’s not taking away power. It is satisfying and clarifying the powers in which the OPR can in fact exercise.”
Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath also lent support to the Bill, stating that it will benefit investment projects being facilitated by his Ministry.
“What it will do in terms of the utilities sector benefiting from these changes today, we will lend ourselves to a better space and place in terms of the utilities sector, adding support for several critical investment projects that we are looking at.”
Once passed, the Bill would change the way in which State contracts are awarded.