The Office of the Special Adviser to the President on relations with Civil Society (OSAP-CSR) is now set to deploy Civil Society representatives to Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) for the purpose of strengthening advocacy for improved transparency and accountability in the procurement process.

The Office through the support of the World Bank had conducted Baseline/Mapping survey of CSOs in six states of the federation an exercise that led to the selection of credible organisations that participated in various training workshops on procurement monitoring and advocacy.

At the concluding session of the training workshop for the CSOs which held at Tunga Hotels, Minna Niger State, Special Assistant/Programme Coordinator to the Special Adviser Mr. Chudi Akude said the office is now set to begin physical deployment of the CSOs to the MDAs in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja where they will utilize the knowledge gained to monitor procurement process and help in collating, analyzing and dissemination of monitoring reports.
Akude informed that the training was in line with the commitment of the office to assist government in fighting corruption in public offices using the Civil Society as effective whistle blowers.
According to him, the entire exercise revolved around the programme on ‘Improving Civil Society involvement in the Economic Reform and Governance Project’ (ERGP) which is essentially Federal governments economic development Roadmap.

He explained that the ERGP aims at bringing reforms in all areas of development adding that the office of the Special Adviser on CSR, saddled with the responsibility of mainstreaming CSO’s into government projects however designed the training exercise to build their capacity to enable them engage procurement process in line with the new legal framework.

The programme coordinator disclosed that two segments of trained CSOs would emerge at the end of the exercise, with one segment being product of monitoring exercise at MDAs while the other would be deployed to their States to lead advocacy campaign to mount pressure on their States to enact procurement law.

Akude stressed that at the end of the whole programme the office would have succeeded in building capacity of the CSOs in procurement observation and monitoring, improve access, analysis and sharing of procurement information, strengthen advocacy in States for enactment of procurement laws.

He commended the World Bank, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria for their support and assistance in the whole programme.