By John Emaboren

A CERTAIN Shuabu Attanda was arrested in Lagos few weeks ago for being in possession of a bag containing 70 dead babies. According to the report, the man was trying to dump the corpses when he was apprehended. Police report later confirmed that the man in question was neither a ritualist nor a child trafficker as was originally suspected.

On interrogation, the man confessed that he was a contractor to a prominent hospital in Lagos. He explained further that his services were engaged through a contract to dispose off  corpses of dead babies by the Department of Morbid Anatomy of the hospital.  He disclosed that part of the terms of the contract for disposing off the corpses was to give the dead bodies decent burial at  a cemetery.

The man confessed that  he was forced into dumping  the corpses of the dead babies anywhere, anyhow because he could no longer afford  to  pay the cemetery charges even when it was included in the total cost of the contract because the funds had been exhausted after “greasing the palms” of key officials of the hospital who facilitated the award of the contract.   The experience of this unusual contractor underlines the long chain  of corruption in public procurement at all levels of government in Nigeria. This is one of the numerous challenges which an agency like the Bureau of Public Procurement is expected to deal with on daily basis at the Federal level.

From the story of  the “dead-babies contractor” the funds expected to be used to execute the job were used to grease the palms of all those involved at every stage of the contract leading to project abandonment  and denial of the service which the project was designed to provide.

Every year in Nigeria,  governments at  various levels (local, state, and federal) budget huge sums of money for development projects but no value added to the social well-being of the people.  Procurement of goods and services to implement these projects are frustrated by lack of transparency, integrity, competition, competence and value for money by those entrusted with the responsibility.

It is of common knowledge that  officials from messenger, clerk to the chief executive involved at one level or the other in the procurement process has a condition which must be  must met in monetary terms before any progress can be made to execute the project.

Besides, best practices which are essential in public procurement are usually compromised on primordial sentiments. It is only in  Nigeria that projects are initiated without any need, budgetary provisions, or any form of technical inputs, sometimes at the expense of other priorities. In addition, there  will be  clear absence of competitive process  to select contractors for the project.  This was basically the situation across the various tiers of government in the country until 2001 when the Due Process  Office now called the Bureau of Public Procurement was set up at the federal level.

That office we were told, was established to streamline the public procurement system and plug avenues of frittering public funds with a view to ensuring that the government and Nigerians get value for  money in any contract awarded.
The activities of the Due Process Office were given the force of law in 2007 when the Public Procurement Act came into being.

The Public Procurement Act  which  is being implemented by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) allows that office to vet major contracts of  Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies to ensure that the process of award of the contract conforms with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.

This include ensuring proper need assessment,  comprehensive project conception by experts, appropriation of funds for the project, and adoption of open competitive tender process to award the job. There were reports in the media that painstaking enforcement of the Public Procurement Act in MDAs by BPP has saved the nation over $10 billion  since inception.  The Bureau therefore largely reduced chances of the long chain of corruption and toll gates in the process that led to the  situation of “dumping-of-dead-babies episode” in Lagos.

While contractors and beneficiaries of inflated contract costs continue to complain and blackmail the Bureau of Public Procurement with all kinds of flimsy excuses, the ordinary Nigerian knows that BPP is needed in Nigeria if the economy must survive. As far as I am concerned, BPP has proved to be like a condom in the fight against HIV/AIDs. All over the world total  elimination of fraud or manipulation of   public procurement process is virtually impossible to achieve. But while BPP cannot guarantee full-proof of leakage of funds through fraudulent practices,  the  Bureau has minimized it at the Federal level.

However, if BPP is enforcing Public Procurement Act and ensuring needed double level of double- check at the Federal level, what about states and local governments that control over 50 per cent of national revenue?  My findings confirm that while the Federal Government gets 48 per cent of revenue allocation, states share 30 per cent, while the local governments are entitled to 20 per cent.

But at the states and local governments, there is no BPP or its equivalent to enforce competition and transparency in public procurement. The consequences of porous public procurement process at the other two tiers of government are better imagined than described. When people complain about certain imperfections and constraints of BPP operations at the Federal level, they fail to look at the situation in their states and local governments where no one asks questions.  What we have in the states is contract bazaar, where contracts are awarded on the basis of I-know-the- governor or simply job for the boys.

Until the Public Procurement Act is adopted or domesticated at state and local government levels, Nigerians will continue to experience what happened in Edo State recently. Governor Adams Oshiomhole was reported to have gone on an inspection of a hospital   project in Etsako Local Government Area of the state. But to the amazement of the Governor, nothing was on ground to justify over N17million already spent on the project and the pressure on the Governor to release more fund. To make matters worse, the Commissioner involved was busy defending the contractor before the thoroughly embarrassed Governor.

While the Bureau of Public Procurement has its imperfections, and challenges, it is certainly obvious the Bureau has performed satisfactorily. Even with BPP operations, I accept that corruption in public procurement at the Federal level is high, but it is higher at the states and certainly highest at the local government level where there is no BPP.

Mr.  Emaboren , a teacher, writes from Benin City, Edo State.