By Abdulwahab Abdulah

Participants at a one-day workshop on accountability and transparency in the awards of contracts by government and its agencies have warned against ignoring the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 by the government while awarding contracts.

The workshop was organised by a non governmental organisation, the  Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in collaboration with the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), to sensitize the civil society groups and the general public on the implications of neglecting the Public Procurement Act, PPA, 2007 in awards of contracts.

At the programme which held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, with 57 civil society groups (CSOs) and the media in attendance, papers were presented, and it was agreed that the consequences of ignoring the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 by the government on the nation’s socio-economic development while awarding contracts, would be unimaginable.

The participants noted that awareness of the Public Procurement Act 2007 among Nigerians was low while many public office holders in Nigeria are not in the habit of following the procurement process in awarding contracts. They therefore tasked Nigerians, especially the media on the necessity of the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill(FOI),before the National Assembly, so that Nigerians will have unfettered access to public documents on demand.

Doing this, according to the participants would expose corrupt officials in the system. The workshop was on, “Train-the trainer capacity building workshop on Public Procurement Act 2007 monitoring and observation for CSOs”.  In his address, Executive Director of CISLAC, Malam Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, lamented how billions of naira meant for economic development , were being frittered away by the day by corrupt politicians, describing the state of public infrastructure in Nigeria as ‘rot’.

According to him, there were series of issues battling for solutions, such as the electoral fraud, which he said has placed Nigeria at the mercy of corruptible politicians, who went to government to steal and deny the citizenry the opportunity to enjoy the dividends of democracy.

Rafsanjani then called for a concerted effort by major players in the country to ensure its sustainability.

In his own remark, Director General Bureau of Public Procurement(BPP),  Ezeh Emeka, represented by his Deputy Director, Training, Mohammed Gambo Mu’azu, noted that the Bureau is pushing for the implementation of the Public Procurement Act and ensure that transparency pervades award of contracts in Nigeria.

Canvassing people’s unhindered participation in debate that would entrench the principles on how government spend public resources and award of contracts, he reiterated the Bureau’s plan to always ensure due process, transparency and accountability in government’s handling of resources just as he vowed that the body would lose no sleep until corruption was stamped out through procurement practices.

He said : “Once we establish a synergy, we would have left no stone unturned in ensuring that all hands are on deck in our bid to stamp out corruption through best practices. The BPP hopes to take Nigeria to a level where the best practices in public procurement are implemented in the overall interest of national development. National development would come if corruption, which mainly takes place through shoddy procurement practices is eliminated.

“It is the believe of the agency that if the public contracting system is governed by the principles of Integrity, Transparency, Competence and Competitiveness as national ethos, a good ground would have been provided for the social, cultural and technological advancement of the country.

“It is expected that in the near future, corruption in public procurement would have been completely given way to open, transparent and competitive Federal Procurement System(FPS), that is integrity-driven and that upholds spending within budget and ensures implementation of projects in order to achieve value-for-money outcome without sacrificing quality and standards.

“Soon the nation should no longer be in doubt about what the benefit of an ideal public procurement is. This is because infrastructures which the nation has lacked due to sharp practices in public procurement should be in evidence.”

Others who spoke at the programme included a lecturer from the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, Dr. Babatunde Oyekanmi and Miss Bimbo Ayinde .

They all stressed the need for transparency and accountability in the awards of contracts in compliance with the Public Procurement Act(PPA) to rid the nation of corruption.

Also , there was call for the replication of the Procurement Act in most states of the federation, to engender transparency.

Oyekan , in his paper ,entitled “Deepening CSO’s participation in the monitoring and implementation of PPA”, highlighted the imperativeness of ‘oversight functions to be performed by CSOs, sensitisation of government officials, and ensuring that the due process is followed at all cost, and concluded that until the states replicate the Act, the nation would continue to swim in the ocean of corruption.

At the end of the workshop, it was suggested that a lot more people need to be trained and educated on the provisions on Public Procurement Act 2007 and those trained  be further empowered and logistically assisted to spread the knowledge gained among other people.

It was also suggested that effort should be put in place to engage the active commitment of media organizations towards increasing visibility of the PPA at all levels in order to ensure adequate compliance with the Act, while the BPP, CISLAC and CSOs need to collaborate further towards leading the process of establishing and utilizing concerted advocacy, communication and social mobilization strategies for implementing the provisions of the PPA at all levels.

It was further advocated that the awareness be taken to the local governments, while a the judiciary should discharge cases more expeditiously especially cases bordering on corruption on procurement and contracts. At the end of the day, CSOs in Oyo state demanded a law on Public Procurement in order to minimize corruption on procurement and contract scam in Oyo state.