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“Central procurement” - Possible solution to rising cost of living
By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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| Stephenson King,St. Lucia’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance |
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AS a possible solution to the rising cost of living being experienced in the Eastern Caribbean, a member of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Monetary Council suggested governments should consider identifying a basket of goods and attain the items therein through “central procurement”.
Briefing the media on issues discussed at the Council’s 61st Meeting last Friday, St. Lucia’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Stephenson King said the region has experienced success with the OECS Pharmaceutical Unit through which pharmaceuticals for the sub-region are centrally acquired.
“…on the question of bulk purchasing, the OECS has had very outstanding, very successful experience of bulk purchasing (through what we call) a central procurement of pharmaceuticals where over the years, through the establishment of the OECS Pharmaceutical Unit, the OECS has been able to come together and to do the central procurement of pharmaceuticals to the cost benefit of member states.”
King told the media that just as the central procurement of pharmaceuticals has yielded rewards, consideration should be given to the central procurement of a basket of goods that would include “essential commodities”.
“What I believe we should look at is a basket of commodities…essential commodities that we can identify and to have a central procurement of those commodities that would allow for a reflection of a decrease in prices. In St. Lucia, for example, when we spoke of looking at what we call a Price Control Mechanism and to increase the basket of goods under price control from 20 to 44, the private sector indicated some of the commodities that we had identified for that basket.
They aren’t in a position to import those goods because the national distribution of those commodities is certainly above what the controlled rate of the margin increase that the government was allowing to take place.” ~~Adz:Right~~
The Finance Minister explained that with the suggestion of a central procurement in the region, a number of factors will have to be considered if it is to be effective.
“In such a situation, the government needs to decide, ‘can we go forward and do the bulk purchasing for the country’ and probably to even look in the direction of no-name labels and allow the established business places to bring in the brand labels.
So the government goes in and brings in the no-name labels, as good as the brand name labels; sometimes coming from the same source, but not having the brand name, which gives people an option, a choice of determining what they would like to have. …So these are some of the areas that governments can look to in an endeavour to help the populace.”
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