Presidential Advisor on Corruption and Governance, Daniel Batidam has indicated that it is wrong for people to breach the procurement law and that offenders must be sanctioned.

According to him, it would be illegal for Smarttys to rebrand the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) Buses before going through the procurement processes.

He believes that institutions which do not go through the procurement processes must face the full rigors of the law.

‘That cannot be right, If it’s the case that the procurement took place before the processes then its outright illegal, that is not the way procurement should be done… If the branding was done before the procurement was undertaken, that in my view will be illegal. I don’t think anybody can/should defend that kind of process, there are always legal processes that need to take place… we are in a country that is governed by laws so if something illegal or wrong is done, there are processes in which the rights are righted… Whoever is responsible will have to see to it that the right thing is done,’ he suggested.

Asked on Ultimate breakfast show hosted by Lantam Papanko if the Smarttys contract qualified for sole sourcing, he explained; ‘Well I don’t have the details that you seem to have about the ground, when we talk about sole sourcing, what we are talking about is the grounds on which you go for that,… it’s not just at the discretions of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, before you proceed to undertake sole sourcing, you need justification’.

Batidam expressed hope that the justification for the Smarttys deal was accepted.

‘And I do not have the information as to the grounds this was taken, but I would want to believe that they would have justification for that. I cannot speak whether the justification was acceptable or not,’ he indicated.