By John Alechenu, Abuja

The presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Architect Peter Agada, has blamed Nigeria’s development challenges on the failure of successive governments to fully implement the Public Procurement Act 2007.

Agada said the failure to constitute the National Council on Public Procurement, as provided for in Section 2 of the Act, had weakened oversight of public projects and contributed to waste and corruption.

He spoke in an interview with Vanguard in Abuja on Monday.

The YPP candidate said the law was designed to promote economy, efficiency, value for money, transparency and competition in public procurement, but argued that its objectives had not been adequately realised.

“The procurement system in Nigeria since 1999 is the reason for underdevelopment,” Agada said. “Implementation of this Act will interrogate 90 per cent of projects gulping our resources.”

He explained that the Act provides for a National Council on Public Procurement chaired by the Minister of Finance, with membership including the Attorney-General of the Federation, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the President’s economic adviser and six part-time members drawn from professional bodies, civil society and the media.

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement serves as secretary to the council.

Agada said Sections 5 and 6 of the Act empower the Bureau of Public Procurement to oversee federal procurement processes, issue Certificates of No Objection where required, monitor prices, publish details of major contracts, maintain a database of contractors and conduct periodic procurement audits for submission to the National Assembly.

He also cited Section 7, which provides for the appointment of the bureau’s director-general by the President on the recommendation of the council, following a competitive selection process. The provision sets out qualification requirements, a four-year tenure renewable once and conditions for removal.

Agada said a YPP-led government would seek to recover substantial public funds through implementation of the law and reforms to Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracting.

He said savings from forensic audits of public projects would help finance his proposed Ward Intervention Initiative, under which each of Nigeria’s 8,809 wards would receive N40 million from sources outside the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

According to him, the proposed funds would be managed by 13-member committees, with accounts domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He put the initiative’s total cost at N32 trillion, with N25 trillion expected to come from investment and foreign direct investment (FDI) in phases.

“Our funding is coming from land title valuation, reduced food and waste importation, lean governance, subsidy savings, direct labour, social insurance, health insurance and others,” he said.

“We will not tamper with current FAAC and tax structure.”

The candidate also cited the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project as an example of why he believed stronger procurement oversight and EPC reforms were necessary.

He argued that scrutiny of public projects would help identify cost, implementation and accountability concerns while improving the use of public resources.

“There is now a project with challenges pointing at this need for EPC reforms, sounding like a broken record. This is a clear sign that the time has come for rolling in the National Council on Procurement,” Agada said.