A new era in public procurement is taking shape with the implementation of the Contractor and Consultant Performance Evaluation Programme (CCPEP).

The CCPEP is the operational arm of the Contractor and Consultant Performance Evaluation (CPE) Policy that was approved by Cabinet in 2023 and officially launched on November 15, 2023.

Designed to evaluate the delivery of government contracts by contractors and consultants, the CCPEP is a game-changing initiative.

In an interview with JIS News, Senior Director, Contractor Performance Monitoring Branch (CPMB) in the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), Cheyenne McClarthy, says the CCPEP marks a new era in Jamaica’s public procurement landscape, focusing squarely on performance-based contracting.

“As part of this programme, what will happen is that ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) will be evaluating the performance of their contractors and consultants on qualified contracts, according to the time period that these contracts are on the ground,” McClarthy explains.

Qualified contracts are defined as those valued more than $10 million or those falling under three key exceptions—emergency contracts, contracts terminated for cause, and contracts awarded to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) under special and differential treatment provisions by the procuring entity.

Assessments of contracts are carried out by designated assessors within MDAs, using standardised performance indicators established in the CCPEP policy. These indicators cover a wide range of criteria, including timeliness, quality of work, communication, adherence to specifications, and contract management compliance.

“The performance indicators will be used to evaluate the performance on that contract from the start of the contract to the end of the contract on a reporting schedule,” McClarthy indicates.

Those reports will come into a special platform that was built by the PPC, called the Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence (DBVI) platform. This platform will collect, consolidate, sort, filter and report on the performance of contractors and consultants as they work on Government of Jamaica (GOJ) contracts.

The DBVI will become a national database for performance contracting. “Within the CCPEP, it is expected that we will have increased accountability, transparency and essentially better project management for the contracts that we have on the ground and also enhance the process of data-driven decision-making, given the reporting function that is part of the CCPEP,” McClarthy says.

The CCPEP brings notable advantages to both public and private stakeholders. For procuring entities, it will provide improved contract administration, consistent monitoring and reporting, better informed procurement and planning decisions and enhanced project oversight and risk management.

“It will allow us to take a look at the obligations that are in our contracts and to see how well these are being met and to improve these obligations being met and, of course, the overall enhanced value for money in public expenditure, promoting high-performing contractors and consultants,” Ms. McClarthy notes.

Contractors and consultants also stand to benefit from objective, documented feedback on performance, enhanced reputational value through positive evaluations and opportunities for recognition. This recognition is done through the Annual Excellence Performance Certificate, which is awarded to those who score more than 84 per cent in performance across the fiscal year.

McClarthy notes that the CCPEP has a built-in mechanism that allows sanctions to be placed on contractors or consultants who are evaluated or assessed as delivering subpar work.

“The CCPEP contains sanctions as part of the policy. There is a sanctions protocol which deals with poor performance in terms of the metric that is below 50 per cent being scored for the performance reporting,” she says. “We have warnings, suspensions and expulsion, for example, from the supply registry in respect of what happens in that sanctions protocol. It’s very important for the contractors and consultants to understand that performance matters.”

She emphasises that contractors need to understand that communication needs to be done during the life of the contract, not just with the procuring entities but internally with their team members.