By Jude Njoku

Piqued by the inability of the Federal Government to constitute and inaugurate the National Council on Public Procurement, seven years after the Act was signed into law, Nigerian quantity surveyors have called for the immediate inauguration of the Council as stipulated by the procurement legislation.

Rising from a two-day national seminar on Procurement of Construction Works and Services – Adapting to Contemporary challenges for Enhanced National development” organised by the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, the construction cost experts called on the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP BPP and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to work out suitable standard guidelines for the management of advance payment funds by commercial banks

In a communiqué released at the end of the seminar in Gombe and signed by the Secretary Professional Development and Library, Dr Ejike Bedford Anunike and the Secretary, Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Mr Jide, the cost experts called for the amendment of the membership of the Council to include a quantity surveyor who is an expert in construction procurement and cost management.

They regretted that seven years after the procurement Act came into being, “corruption, conflicts of interests, fraud and irregularities still afflict public procurement and these have stunted national development and economic growth either through siphoned public funds or poorly planned and executed procurements”.

Noting that the Act has the capacity to ensure economic, efficient, effective and transparent public procurement (which is a sine-qua non for enhanced national development and economic growth) if judiciously implemented, the construction cost experts however identified factors militating against its implementation.

They include: * Some stakeholders especially politicians and government officials who are reluctant to adjust to the new paradigm shift and therefore still employ all sorts of tactics to fraudulently manipulate the procurement process especially during bid evaluations to favour particular bidders.

*Lack of capacity by many procurement officers, proper procurement planning in many Ministries, Departments and Agencies of governments, and lack of a national integrated procurement plan

* Discrepancies between budgetary appropriation and actual release of funds; late release of available funds coupled with subsequent mopping up funds at the end of the financial year.

* Many MDA’s are still not very conversant with all the procurement guidelines resulting to the annulment of many procurement processes or reversal of awards by the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP due to non-adherence to prequalification guidelines and wrong interpretation of the contentious issue of award of contracts to “the lowest responsive bidder”.

*Faking of technical and financial capacities, bribery and under-pricing by bidders leading to compromise in quality delivery, disputes and excessive cost and time overruns of projects.

The cost experts therefore canvassed the enhancement of the capacities of the procurement departments/units of all MDAs through the intensive training of existing procurement officers and massive employment of quantity surveyors as procurement specialists to strengthen capacity in the area of construction procurement which is complex and usually outside the knowledge of general procurement officers.

They want Public Procurement Act to specifically clarify the issue surrounding conflict of interest in public procurement by identifying ways of addressing them through training, advisory services and enforcement mechanism.

Proper procurement plans that will ensure early multi-level and multi-sector consultations must be put in place at the onset. The current 30 years (2014-2043) National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan, NIIMP developed by the National Planning Commission is a welcome development but its implementation should not be truncated by succeeding governments reminiscent of the National Development Plans of the 70’s and 80’s,” they advised.