Retiring officials to continue on state procurement committees

The Government, in a bid to accelerate the state procurement process, is allowing officials serving on Sri Lankan procurement committees to continue even after retirement.

Such approval has been given by the Finance Ministry in an August 25 circular to all state institutions where it is stated that “in order to overcome procurement delays, with the agreement of the Secretary to the respective ministry, the procurement entities are allowed to continue the service of such retired/retiring officials until the respective procurements are finalised”.

The ministry said that some Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (CAPC) could not be completed within the prescribed period (described in technical terms as the ‘prescribed time period’ or PTS) due to the retirement of members of the CAPC and Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) before the procurement completion process.

The circular also drew attention to the ‘timing of meetings’ of the two committees, stating that meetings are arranged in the morning which affected the office work of the respective agencies. The ministry instructed that all CAPC and TEC meetings should be held after 3 pm on weekdays “without interrupting other duties of agencies”.

It also stated that there are a limited number of officers available for CAPC and TEC members and thus procurement committees were asked to state the day of completion to facilitate this process.