We are loath to criticise the new administration's plan to lower the financial threshold at which specific government agencies can unilaterally enter procurement contracts, yet, we understand the seeming concern of Contractor General Greg Christie over the issue.

The administration is yet to state the size of the contracts these selected agencies would be allowed to award without the endorsement of the National Contracts Committee (NCC). It is, however, obvious that it will be somewhere more than the $4 million that is now the trigger sum.

Our sympathy with the Government's proposal rests on two main planks. The first is that, in any sense, J$4 million is not an awful lot of money. It was not when the current threshold was implemented, during the tenure of former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson. And much of that value has been eaten away by inflation during that period.

Or, looked at another way, this is not the size of procurement deal the management of which should seriously stretch any reasonably competent administrator. Moreover, we suspect that the administrative costs, in terms of time and effort, in taking these bids to the NCC for approval, if done seriously, would be prohibitive.

This latter point, of course, is related to the issue raised by the Government. We understand the argument that contracts critical to government departments and agencies, but not of particularly high value, are delayed while they work their way through the NCC. There is the potential for undermining important service delivery.

However, like Mr. Christie, whose job it is to police government procurement contracts, to ensure that taxpayers get value for their money, we are surprised that the Contractor General was not consulted prior to last week's declaration of intent. It is not too late, though, to have this corrected.

Mr. Christie has asked for the NCC and his office to be engaged before thresholds are agreed. We expect that Prime Minister Bruce Golding will facilitate such discussions.

Indeed, it is in Mr. Golding's interest that this should happen and to be seen to be doing everything to prevent corruption. After all, Mr. Golding's Jamaica Labour Party campaigned on a robust anti-corruption platform and its agitation, while in Opposition, helped persuade Mr. Patterson to lift the benchmark for procurement deals to have the imprimatur of the NCC.

Mr. Golding's party had good reason then to be wary of supposedly relatively small contracts being allowed to by-pass NCC endorsement and periodic scrutiny by the Office of the Contractor General. It was not unknown, for instance, for large contracts to be cut into a number of smaller ones, for the same procurement, so as to evade the NCC and the Contractor General. This was one way to stock the political pork barrel and we suspect, accommodate graft and kickbacks.

In the face of all this, we are sure that Mr. Golding understands our concerns. His administration, perhaps more than any other in the recent past, needs to demonstrate that it is doing all in its power to eradicate corruption. Having raised the bar yourself, you can't shy away from the hurdle.

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