Leadership (Abuja)
Philip Nyam
6 November 2009
Abuja — Director-general of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), Eng. Emeka Ezeh, has disclosed that the bureau has expended N68 million on the training of its staff and institutional strengthening, even as he blamed the failure of projects in the country on the unpatriotic attitude of some civil servants.
Eze, who made the disclosure when members of the House Committee on Public Procurement visited the bureau on oversight function, explained that N120 million was appropriated for capacity building in the 2009 budget but so far only N68 million has been utilised.
He told the committee that the sum of N405.7 million was appropriated to the bureau in 2009 as capital budget while the sum of N151.4 million has so far been released in the first, second and third quarters of the year.
According to him, the BPP has expended the sum of N5.668 million on completed projects while payments in respect of ongoing projects will be paid as soon as the projects are completed within the year.
On the implementation of the 2008 budget, the DG disclosed that the bureau returned to the sub-treasury the sum of N83 million, which was mostly savings from competitive and transparent bidding. He explained that the sum of N200 million was received by the bureau as capital votes within the year.
The DG who lamented that the greatest challenge the bureau is the high level of dishonesty in the country, said they will soon forward a list of ministries officials who have breached the Public Procurement Act to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the attorney-general of the federation, Chief Michael Aondoakaa and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for prosecution.
"The greatest challenge we have is sincerity having who will be sincere people who can serve this country and not serve their pockets", he said
He stressed that the BPP was preparing a list of people at ministries and agencies of government who have flouted the BPP Act in their disregard for rules.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
