The Joint Con­sul­ta­tive Coun­cil (JCC) for the con­struc­tion in­dus­try is ac­cus­ing the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of cre­at­ing a ruse to de­lay the pro­cure­ment leg­is­la­tion.

In a press re­lease on Tues­day, the JCC said it was “sound­ing the alarm” that state­ments made by AG Regi­nald Ar­mour about de­pend­ing on sup­port from the Of­fice of the Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion (OPR) were “disin­gen­u­ous and dan­ger­ous.”

“It is clear­ly a ruse to de­lay the full op­er­a­tional­i­sa­tion of the Pro­cure­ment Leg­is­la­tion. The OPR has com­plet­ed all of its man­dates, in­clud­ing meet­ing with all rel­e­vant state agen­cies over the last four years,” the JCC said.

It said the OPR has no pow­er to ap­point pro­cure­ment of­fi­cers to State agen­cies.

It not­ed that since 2016, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert has gone to the Par­lia­ment promis­ing the op­er­a­tional­i­sa­tion of the leg­is­la­tion was im­mi­nent.

“Every year since, monies were al­lo­cat­ed to var­i­ous pub­lic bod­ies post-bud­get. Why have the rel­e­vant Min­is­ters and Per­ma­nent Sec­re­taries not ap­point­ed Pro­cure­ment Of­fi­cers to op­er­ate with­in the in­tent of the new leg­is­la­tion?” the JCC asked.

The coun­cil said in­stead, the pub­lic has to ac­cept that State funds were be­ing spent with­out the prop­er over­sight.

Call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to take charge of this “lan­guish­ing” process, the coun­cil said the AG’s of­fice must let the pub­lic know which State bod­ies have not ap­point­ed pro­cure­ment of­fi­cers.