By Oscarline Onwuemenyi

ABUJA – The Director-General of the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP, Engr. Emeka Ezeh, has said more than $590 million (N88.5bn) has been saved the nation through the activities of the BPP in less than two years.

Ezeh, who was speaking yesterday at the 3rd National Procurement Forum, organised by the BPP, said the Public Procurement Act of 2007 has served as “a clarion call to probity, accountability, adherence to methods in the disbursement of a commonwealth and the production of evidence in the application of the wealth.”

According to him, “cost of contracts are no longer unreasonably expensive; they are projected in context and vetted with due rigour. Through the process, not less than $590 million has been saved the country from July 2007 to the end of 2009.

“We can hardly estimate in monetary terms the gains of the Act in the area of attitudinal change,” Ezeh added.
He explained that the Public Procurement Act of 2007 came into being as an antidote against wasteful spending and misapplication of public funds.

“The implementation of the Act was to engender competition, encourage quality with a view to achieving value for money in the use of public resources. Through the judicious use of these resources, it was expected that infrastructures and utilities which have been lacking in the nation’s social life would be provided,” he noted.