Abimbola Akosile
5 November 2009
Lagos — The World Bank and other donor partners have been called upon to back the execution of a campaign, which aims at involving the Civil Society in the monitoring of procurement and donor assisted projects in the country.
The call was made by the Special Adviser to the President on Relations with the Civil Society, Prince Chineme Ume-Ezeoke, who sought backing for his office concerning the project.
Ume-Ezeoke in a paper titled 'Government's Involvement of Civil Society in Monitoring Public Procurement and Donor Assisted Projects in Nigeria, which he presented at the recent World Bank-IMF Annual meeting at Istanbul, Turkey, explained that Public Procurement is the fulcrum of government economic activities not only in Nigeria, but the world over.
According to him, "Public procurement is an activity that is global considering its importance in world merchandise and commercial service exports and a major interface between the public and the private sectors that provides opportunities for both public and private actors to divert public funds for their private gain."
He commended the present administration for its commitment to social accountability and anti-corruption, which prompted the signing into law the 2007 Procurement bill, according to an information by his media aide, Mr. Chika Izuora.
The Special Adviser however cautioned that in order to achieve the initiative's anticipated goal, government should strategically engage the Non State Actors (NSA) by building their capacities to contribute to the effective implementation of the tenets of the Act.
Said he, "With the enactment of the PPAct in June 2007 a major challenge is the need to put in place an effective mechanism for the implementation of the procurement Act, which requires inclusiveness and attitudinal change to ensure enforcement and at the same time minimise collusion between designated officials and contractors to thwart the system".
Ume-Ezeoke said even though the constitution of the National Council on Procurement recognised that six part-time members be enlisted to represent various Non State Actors, which include the Civil Society, there is the need to trickle down and expand the space for the participation of Non Government Actors at MDAs level.
"At this level the CSOs will work with other stakeholders to observe, track and monitor procurement/projects/contracts award by government and relevant MDAs" he argued.
He added that it will go a long way to institutionalise the efficient implementation of the Act, which will engender transparency and accountability in the Public Procurement process and governance in the country.
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