00:00A revelation in today's Parliamentary Committee that not only is the foreign exchange shortage
00:07taking a hit on private sector business, but it's also carving dangerous inroads into the
00:13operations of state bodies.
00:16When you go around the place and you see what's being imported and foreign exchange being
00:19consumed in other things, chocolates and cheeses and so on, and we can't get foreign exchange
00:26to execute government projects, I find that unacceptable.
00:31So we have asked the Executive Director to try and set up meetings with the Ministry
00:37of Finance to see if we can find a better way of doing this.
00:42Because if we can't get the foreign exchange, we can't execute, we have to account to the
00:45Ministry why we didn't execute, and things like this.
00:49So it's not efficient.
00:50The Senate-Maharaj Chair Committee learned that the problem has persisted over the past
00:55year with the Bureau being unable to access the monthly $100,000 in U.S. currency needed
01:03to meet its needs.
01:04We have a tensile tester, for example, which is a piece of equipment we recently purchased
01:12to test carbon steel bars, which is used in the construction sector.
01:19So right now we are waiting for the calibration of a piece of equipment which is an indenter
01:26It's an addition to the equipment to be able to commission it.
01:32Permanent Secretary of the Trade Ministry Randall Karam explains the matter was only
01:37brought to his ministry's attention two weeks ago.
01:41Another matter at the Bureau's doorstep is the 44 vacancies existing among some 212 positions.
01:49The Bureau has no authority to make those appointments without the approval of the
01:57higher authorities.
01:58Well, we've just come out of the budget debate where ministry after ministry spoke about
02:09huge numbers of vacancies and the length of time that it's taking service commissions
02:17to go through that process.
02:20I think what you're describing there is you're being another victim of a dysfunctional process.
02:26However, the P.S. maintains their operations have been unaffected.
02:31We have not discerned any serious gaps in the existing staff complement's ability to
02:40effectively execute its mandate.
02:43I know it's always a concern when one looks at an organization or structure and sees vacancies
02:50and the easiest conclusion to reach is this is a problem.
02:55Through the state sector, state enterprise sector, the public sector, you see a lot of
03:02vacancies even within the ministry.
03:05And to be fair, sometimes the staff you have are adequate to effectively execute your mandate.
03:15Some of the positions you may have, and we've noted, may be antiquated.
03:20The Bureau is championing a national quality policy and has been allocated some $15 million
03:27since 2021 for the implementation of the infrastructure.
03:31Arvishi Tiwari, Rupanarayan TV6 News.
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