Lagos — Vital Governance Instrument

Spirited efforts are being made from different quarters to ensure that Nigeria is purged of corruption in governance. The push is so intense that it is now a habit to rate any political office holder on his or her ability to discharge duties in a transparent and accountable manner. For most public servants today, 'business is no longer as usual'.

In a bid to ride the country of corruption, stringent measures, laws and agencies have been set up to ensure that the system is sanitised. This gave rise to the Public Procurement Act, which was signed into law by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2007.

The Act became imperative because public procurement is one of the biggest sources of government expenditure, and is easily prone to abuse and accompanying corruption, as past experience has shown.

The overall impact of public procurement in governance, government perception and national development cannot be overemphasised, because if mishandled, it can impact negatively on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

On the other hand, if it is properly spent, the results would be long lasting, as it would trickle down to positively affect the welfare state of all Nigerians, especially at the grassroots.

Unfortunately, the reverse has been the case as decades of corruption; collapse of law and order, massive waste as well as institutionalised impunity have jointly deprived the citizens of Nigeria access to those things that other countries take for granted.

Corruption, especially in the public service, has in no small measure affected the way in which government dispenses its public funds.

Harping on Amendment

During the previous week, the House Committee on Procurement, in collaboration with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), organised a one-day stakeholders' forum on emerging challenges to the implementation of the Public Procurement Act.

The theme of the forum was, 'Operationalising the Procurement Act 2007 Bill and the Oversight Challenge'. The workshop had 30 participants in attendance including members of the committee on Public Procurement, staff of the committee, CSOs, media and experts in attendance.

The forum, in addition to being an orientation meeting for most members of the committee, was also to serve as a follow up to NDI's recent work on the public procurement amendment bill.

NDI and the Committee reached an agreement to facilitate this meeting to help familiarise the committee with contending issues within the bill, as well as analyse challenges that may affect the implementation of the Act.

In his welcome remarks, the Deputy Country Director, NDI, Mr. Clement Nwankwo, noted that the objectives of the forum was for the committee to introduce its oversight strategy on matters of public procurement.

To orient the committee on the proposed public procurement amendment bill and also focus on identifying likely emerging challenges towards implementation of the public procurement Act.

The workshop, organised by the Strengthening National Assembly Programs (SNAP) of the NDI, sponsored by the DfID and managed by USAID brought out some crucial issues that border on public procurement.

Concerned Legislative Agenda

The Chairman, House of Representatives' Committee on Public Procurement (Due Process), Honourable Yusuf Tuggar outlined the Committee's agenda, which adopted a 15-month Legislative Agenda covering September 2008 - December, 2009.

Tuggar revealed that the agenda is structured into four phases including: Familiarisation; Ground Work and Preparatory; Core Legislative Work; and Consultations, Review and Planning.

The programmes were designed to enable the committee achieve its mission of engendering transparent governance environment through accountable, reliable and trustworthy public procurement practices in Nigeria.

According to the Committee Chairman, these linked activities are to ensure that they cumulatively contribute to the realisation of the objective of instituting a proactive and all-inclusive oversight strategy on matters of public procurement at the federal level.

They are also to affirm the monitoring and evaluation powers of the National Assembly to develop strategies of establishing simple tools that would provide critical and necessary information to ensure that the committee meet its expected output.

Included in the agenda was an outline of the expected output which include: a Monthly Public Procurement Review Report, a Quarterly Sectoral Consultative Forum, Implementation Reports, Workshops, Study Tour/Training, Public Hearings, and National Procurement Summit to be convened in September, 2009.

Prompt Action on Procurement

The workshop presentations threw up reality as it concerns the need to ensure maximum impact of the public procurement policy.

Speaking on the challenges for effective implementation of a reformed public procurement system in Nigeria, Eze Onyekpere enumerated the basic factors that impede public procurement in Nigeria.

According to Eze, the mischief in the law and practice that led to the enactment of the Public Procurement Act 2007 was the lack of value for money-economy, as efficiency and effectiveness of public procurements were poor.

"Corruption was the order of the day, laws and financial regulations were routinely broken. Government was not realising policy targets, budgets were hardly properly implemented, no correlation between wealth, hard work, innovation and contribution to the society".

"Government was seen as the easiest source of wealth through inordinate contracting, and government was not accountable to Nigerians. Instead bad governance was mainstreamed as the order of the day", he lamented.

Nevertheless, he stated that if the Act is fully implemented as amended, it would help address the issues raised. "It will help to fight corruption to a standstill, promote issue based politics, and prevent the subversion of the legal system with financial laws and regulations respected. It will affirm societal ethics that links the cardinal virtues of honesty, patience and hard work coupled with innovation and real contributions to the society and financial success", he said

Similarly, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), in his presentation, remarked that prior to this time, Nigeria was among the League of Nations without legislation on public procurement.

"The Act is going to provide the legal and institutional framework for the enthronement of transparency, accountability, value for money and efficiency in the procurement of works, goods and services in Nigeria ", Orji asserted.

He said that an open competitive procurement system would be beneficiary to all levels of government. "It would assist the federal, states and local government to work better with contractors, completes more projects and makes profits that are mutually beneficial".

According to Orji, the Act is a welcome development, as it would reduce corruption amongst government's administration of contracts and bids, by ensuring efficiency in resource management and

allocation.

"It would provide a level playing ground for all contractors and consultants, improve value for money and above all, transparency and openness. This act puts Nigeria in the League of Nations with legislation on how public funds are to be disbursed".

"To ensure adherence, the BPP, popularly known as the 'Due Process office' is expected to put in place, a mechanism to restore openness, budgetary discipline, optimal cost and efficient projects implementation", he said.

Challenge of Public Perception

During the workshop, it was revealed that one of the main challenges limiting the successful implementation of the Act is general lack of awareness and ignorant about the existence of such law among the public and policy makers.

This brought to the fore a need to embark on strong sensitisation, championed by the legislators through the efforts of the House Committee on Procurement, relevant agencies like the BPP, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) like the NDI and the media.

According to Orji, there is a huge gap in the knowledge on what people should know about the Public Procurement Act.

"Sitting down in Abuja, believing that people understand what you are doing is not a good decision. You need to move out of Abuja because the law applies to every Nigerian".

"Our visits to Kano, Maiduguri, Calabar has exposed the fact that we really need to enlighten and educate Nigerians on the importance of this law. And unless Nigerians understand this law, it would be wrong of you to expect too much of compliance from them", he said.

To Orji, "citizens have to understand the law and what is wrong with the old order, why change is necessary and what they stand to benefit from the law, in terms of providing infrastructure. This is what we are talking about", he explained.

In a similar vein, chairman of the House Committee on Procurement pledged to ensure that the legislators play their role in educating the public on the important issue, in order to get maximum compliance.

"I would like to assuage any fears on the part of the media or any reservations the civil societies working with this committee might have because we have the best intentions", Tuggar said.

According to him, "we intend to ensure compliance with this Act. We intend to ensure that the public procurement framework in place is an effective one that will ensure reduction in venality in Nigeria, but we have to start from somewhere".

"This is why we are here today, first and foremost, to enlighten and educate ourselves as members. So that we would be able to further enlighten our colleagues on some of the implications and ramifications of any actions we might take, vis the Public Procurement Act", he said.

"As you well know, the Committee has just been re-constituted, so we are just beginning to do that. Our legislative agenda includes Public Hearing, which will be used to sensitise Nigerians in the six geo-political zones of the country to ensure that they are fully aware".

Tuggar added, "because it is not fair to say that a law has been put into place and without any sensitisation or people realising that they may be breaking the law, you start taking actions or prosecuting them. It is a process that has to be done effectively and we will do so".

Any Way Forward?

It is obvious that the implementation of Public Procurement Act is over due and must be put in top gear if Nigerians are serious about fighting corruption in the polity.

A report CPAR conducted in 1999-2000 revealed that before 1999, Nigeria lost $10b every year to corruption through award of contracts, which is alarming.

Therefore, with BMPIU being set up as a radical response to the problem and with relevant law to back its operations, concerned agencies should ensure maximum understanding of the law and its strict implementation and compliance.