BY AUGUSTINE OMILO
GIVEN the spate of financial unaccountability uncovered in government institutions recently, particularly in NNPC Limited and the National Assembly, it has become imperative for governments at all levels to critically continue to examine and re-examine the provisions of the 2007 procurement act with a view to strengthening the nation’s financial system.
For the avoidance of doubts; Procurement Act is a law that establishes a framework for how a government or organization acquires goods, works, and services, with the goal of promoting fairness, transparency, and value for money.
A good example is Nigeria’s Public Procurement Act of 2007 which created the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to regulate and oversee public procurement processes, ensuring they are competitive, cost-effective, and professional. The act sets standards, develops a legal framework, and builds professional capacity for public procurements.
The importance of this act cannot be overemphasized. It harmonizes policies by unifying and standardizing existing government policies and practices related to procurement. This is in addition to ensuring transparency and accountability that further build public trust and prevent corruption in the acquisition of public assets. The act further aims to promote fair competition through the creation of a level playing ground for all eligible bidders, whether local or international and thereby further achieving better value for money being used more efficiently and effectively.
The act also establishes regulatory bodies responsible for monitoring, oversight, and setting standards for public procurement amongst others.
Unfortunately, across board, this laudable provision in governance is seldom implemented as it should. At best, many states have their public procurement sections placed under other agencies or ministries of government as mere units controlled by larger organisations that sometimes lack the professional wherewithal to carry out the functions of a Public Procurement Departments as stipulated in the laws establishing it. This in turn, has rendered many procurement units at the state levels redundant while many suppliers and contractors are smiling to the banks with monies received from government offices without earning them.
Beyond the legal provisions in the procurement act, the scope of procurement Departments deserves expansions to include budgetary monitoring and control. No ministry, department or agency should be allowed to overshoot its appropriation bill in awarding contracts without supplementary provisions. And all budgetary expenditures must periodically be examined to ensure that there are no lapses in spending.
In monitoring the activities relating to governance, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must not ignore the roles played by information technology along that line. Not only should right equipment be deployed, but appropriately tested and trusted software must also be deployed by government for keeping track of all relevant government financial transaction activities.
In line with the core objectives of the procurement act, ensuring professional practice in the department requires that relevant professionals must be deployed to handle specific areas of coverage by the Public Procurement Department. For example, the different areas of civil engineering and accounting must be considered while deploying staff to the place. This will ensure that the languages of contractors, suppliers and consultants are clearly understood by immediate stakeholders in the department.
As a department responsible for buying and acquiring the goods for sales as well as recruitment of contractors and consultants, the procurement department must be headed by professionally qualified director. The departmental director should also be the one that assigns the tasks needed during the procurement process while checking to see if each process involved aligns with the strategies that the company or government agency wants for the procurement.
Being the section of governance where final stages of the procurement processes take place, it behooves it to ensure that supplies are received in good condition, the suppliers paid, and contracts are properly negotiated on behalf of the government or company.
The department must be properly sectionalized with a view to having qualified personnel to handle such areas as goods’ sourcing, management of suppliers’ relationships, negotiating goods supplies agreements, identification potential supplier sources, conducting interviews with potential vendors, and managing suppliers, vendors and contractors contracts.
To avoid becoming a toothless bull dog, the authorities in governance like the president, governors and local government chairmen must create the necessary will power and needed atmosphere for the professionals saddled with procurement assignments to thrive.
To ensure close, proper supervision and transparency in the administration of the procurement department, it should be placed under the office of the president, governor and local government chairman or company chief executive officer. As the liaison between governments and external business associates, the Director of Public Procurement must not be allowed to spend too long a time before briefing his or her boss on the happenings in the department.
Like other departments that aim to excel in service delivery, public procurement section of governance must ensure continued training and re-training of its workforce. This is necessary for efficient services, especially with modern management tools.
But then, for the department to be maximally corruption-free, the agencies responsible for orientation and value system development must not relent in educating Nigerians on issues of life without cutting corners with greedy attitude. Young people must be convinced of the need for lives free of the get-rich-quick syndrome that has eaten deep into the fabrics of the Nigerian society. Inculcating this style of living within one’s means requires that there must also be fare reward system for citizens while corrupt persons are brought before the laws of the land at regular intervals.
