by Linda Straker
- No ordinary or regular sitting during January and February
- Special joint sitting to celebrate Grenada’s 50th Independence held on Tuesday, 6 February
- House of Representatives first regular/ordinary sitting will be Tuesday, 26 March
The Lower House of Parliament, also called the House of Representatives, will have its first regular/ordinary sitting for 2024 on Tuesday, 26 March. There was no ordinary or regular sitting during January and February, however, on Tuesday, 6 February there was a special joint sitting to celebrate Grenada’s 50th Independence.
According to section 10 of the standing orders, the House shall “ordinarily sit during the third Tuesday in each month commencing at the hour of Ten o’clock in the forenoon and shall proceed with business in the order set down in Standing Order No. 16 (Order of Business) and Standing Order No. 24 (Arrangement of Public Business).”
Notice of a sitting shall be sent 7 days in advance. The notice for the 26 March sitting was disseminated on 18 March, but the Order Paper for the sitting is yet to be made public. While presenting the 2024 budget statement in December 2023, Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall informed Leo Cato, Speaker of the House, that Government as part of its structural reform mechanism will be seeking to amend the procurement legislation with regards to single sourcing contracts by March 2024.
“Mr Speaker, the procurement framework is currently under review. While this is ongoing, we are of the considered view that an amendment to raise the current single sourcing threshold from $15,000, by implementing e-Government procurement, updating the current legal framework and benchmarking the current process against best practices,” he said, pointing out that the plan is to move single sourcing of works, goods and consultancy services up to EC$100,000.
“This policy reflects our efforts to improve the procurement function to increase transparency and boost the efficiency of procurement and the economy, more broadly,” Cornwall informed.