Senator Iroegbu
18 November 2008
analysis
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.
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