Head of Civil Service warns against the violation of the public procurement procedures in the award of contracts

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Isa Bello Sali, has warned civil servants against the violation of the public procurement procedures in the award of contracts, saying corruption and other abuses have impeded the implementation of government projects.
Sali gave the warning yesterday at the opening ceremony of a workshop on the review of 2012 Budget procurement plans for ministries, departments and agencies organized by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPE) held at the new auditorium of the State House, Abuja.

He said the warning became imperative in view of the flagrant abuse of the Public Procurement Reform Act, 2007, which he said has impeded service delivery

He said, “Procurement officers have been often accused of being impediments to the implementation of government projects through the manipulation of the procurement process.

“There have been complaints that border on unwholesome practices such as leaking of information to favourite bidders, receiving submissions after the official close of bids, bid tampering etc.”

He said the workshop was to ensure compliance with the Bureau for Public Procurement’s approved templates as well as to improve participant’s knowledge of the planning tools and tender evaluation procedures.

He called on the participants to use the workshop to ponder over the lapses and find ways of eliminating them so that the government’s quest for transforming the country would be realised for the benefit of the nation.

Sali noted that the workshop was a follow-up to workshop for all permanent secretaries held in Calabar, saying the permanent secretaries as chief accounting officers of their MDAs reviewed the implementation of previous budgets especially the 2012 procurement.

In his remarks, the Chief Economic Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Professor Nwanze Okidegbe, stated that the procurement process, if properly implemented, would fast-tracking the early attainment of Vision 20:2020. He said workshop was to review the 2012 procurement plans to ensure transparency in the process of auditing contracts in order to reduce corruption.

The Director General of the BPP, Engineer Emeka Eze, warned MDAs especially internally generated revenue agencies against the practice of bypassing due process requirements in making procurements and promised to sanction any of them found wanting.

Engineer Eze also berated procurement officers who do not recognize the lowest bidders, saying that BPP got about 143 petitions out of the 11,000 projects executed in 2011

“Some of you ask people to submit up to five different names even when you have already determined who you will award the contracts to while some award the contracts to themselves.

“Some of you are quick to blame the BPP for delay in the execution of government contracts whereas in some MDAs, contract documents are delayed for up to six months just to subvert due process,” he said.

He also berated the legal departments of MDAs for delaying contract documents which he said often lead to delays in implementation of government projects. He noted that contractors handling jobs between the contract sum of N20 million and N50million to be given prompt attention.

Culled from Daily Trust