By JOSEPH ERUNKE
ABUJA — THE Bureau for Public Procurement has flayed what it called ‘non adherence to Public Procurement Act’ by government ministries, departments and agencies, saying the development was adversely affecting Federal Government’s fight against corruption.

The agency said it observed that most biddings and contract awards carried out by government’s ministries, department and agencies were without regard to due process.

The agency’s Director, Research and Planning, Mr Anthony Ikor, disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja at the opening of a two-day procurement capacity workshop organised by the National Directorate of Employment, NDE, in collaboration with the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP.

He said despite sensitisation campaigns the BPP had carried out on Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, there was still non adherence to Public Procurement Acts, saying unless there was a change of attitude, government’s crusade on fight against corruption would be effort in futility.

Ikor, who was also one of the resource persons at the two-day event, reminded participants that the agency had the right not only to enforce the Act but prosecute offenders, disclosing that archival records were going to be opened for participants. This, he said, was because “we have observed that most agencies, after training, abandoned what they were taught.”

Declaring the occasion open, Director-General, National Directorate of Employment, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, said the development informed his leadership to collaborate with the BPP for the workshop to keep his staff abreast with the need to carry out their statutory functions in accordance with the laid-down role.

He re-affirmed the determination of his leadership not to go contrary to the Public Procurement Acts just as he disclosed that his strict adherence to the acts had always led to complaints by contractors in his organisation.

“We in the NDE are always wary of this and I can assure you that we will continue to carry out our functions with strict adherence to public procurement process”, he assured.

Mallam  Abubakar Mohammed hinted that he was worried over the negative image being given Nigeria and its citizens in connection with corruption, saying all hands must be on deck with a view to changing the development.

He decried the poor funding of some agencies, saying the National Directorate of Employment was being hindered from carrying out certain programmes to better the lots of the society, saying in spite of this, he was determined to take the NDE to a greater level.