By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA – THE Nigerian government has debunked the report by the United States that the country lacks transparency in its public procurement, describing the allegation as false and lacking in merit.
Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, said the reforms embarked upon by the President Bola Tinubu’s government has sanitised the process and brought transparency and accountability in the system.
The BPP DG said within one and half years, he has been on the saddle, awards of contracts follow due process and are advertised in accordance with the Procurement Act and the bidding process has been transparent.
He also said that anti-graft agencies like the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Police and the Code of Conduct Bureau, CBB, are currently investigating and prosecuting those that have contravened the Public Procurement Act.
He argued that the US report may not have taken into consideration the reforms being
undertaken by Tinubu’s government and may have not taken time to look at recent development.
According to him: “Prior to his (Tinubu) assumption of office, of course, there were issues around that, but since he took over and since he undertook a procurement reform, things have changed. For instance, in terms of transparency, contracts are being advertised for.
“There’s benchmarking, price intelligence, government is benchmarking through Bureau of Public Procurement. Government has issued various circulars in terms of ensuring transparency and accountability in the procurement process.
“You could also see that we are now engaging the civil society in terms of monitoring and evaluation. We’re discussing with professional bodies on ensuring that there’s value for money at all times. BPP as the regulatory body and my appointment as a DG, you could see in the last one year plus that a lot of reforms are ongoing in terms of issues of advertisement, issues of decentralization of the procurement processes.
“FEC (Federal Executive Council) approval limits have been raised significantly high to give all government agencies the opportunity to run their procurement without any hindrances by government.
“Again, BPP as an institution has been given freedom to conduct monitoring and evaluation, to conduct procurement audits nationwide. So the argument that Nigeria is not being transparent and accountable in procurement processes is not correct based on the reforms that are ongoing currently.
“And much more, government has committed itself to issues of electronic government procurement, digitalization of these procurement processes. And we are on it right now in trying to make sure that we transit to electronic government procurement.
“And also taking into consideration affirmative action, government is being transparent by getting women, youth and those with disability to come into procurement processes. And the law is also being reviewed to accommodate all the gaps, challenges that were identified.
“And again, publishing of contracts that everybody would see is something now that contractors are writing petitions to BPP.and we are reversing award of contract that were wrongly awarded to agencies.”
Continuing, he said: “Only a few days ago, or a few weeks ago, even Nigeria advertised for a procurement that was won by a foreign firm who has never entered Nigeria. Is that not transparency and accountability? Contracts were advertised in Nigeria, companies abroad bidded without knowing anybody in Nigeria, without entering into the country and they won and they are executing and they are being paid as at when due.
*So, if in the global space, they are saying things have not improved. I have just given you an example of how foreign companies bidded for projects in Nigeria. They have not stepped into this country. They submitted online, bidded online, got their award letter online and they are executing it without stepping into Nigeria.
“So, their position may have been in the past, but not currently. Nigeria is on the threshold of total transparency and accountability in its procurement system, including human capital development.
“For the first time in over 10 years, Nigeria is spending huge resources to enhance and build capacity of procurement officers nationwide and giving them confidence to report any infraction in any procurement processes.
“Also, I have contractors who are now confident, who are now reporting to BPP directly about infringements in government agencies in their procurement processes. And we are reverting where somebody won legitimately, where they have been denied, we are reversing it in their favor.
“So, a lot is going on. And don’t forget, ICPC, EFCC, the police, Code of Conduct, are currently investigating and prosecuting a number of people who have contravened the Public Procurement Act so far. Yes, we can do better, but have we done better? We have done better in the last one and a half years.
And we are proud to say that.”
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