A Public Procurement and Supply management expert, Mr. Biebele Arimie, has identified the absence of a clear policy direction as a possible hindrance to the successful implementation of the 2016 budget of the Federal Government.
The  former Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Procurement and Supply Management, Rivers and Bayelsa Chapter, who made the assertion in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, said that even though there may be identified priority areas of the appropriation document, not much could be achieved without a clear policy thrust for the various ministries and sectors of the economy.
He said the essence of a policy direction was to guide the ministries, departments and agencies, and also prepare the people for a healthy procurement competition, adding that the era when contracts were awarded in secret should be over.
“That is where I have my doubts and worries with the government. What is the policy for health? What is the policy for Education? What is the policy for Environment?”, he queried, noting that “the policy direction or policy thrust for each of these ministries will guide people and prepare them for the healthy procurement competition that will be coming ahead.
Arimie enjoined the Federal Government to not only be transparent but be guided by extant laws on public procurement.
“We want to see healthy competition; we want to see adverts for jobs, for consultancies”, he said, insisting that “This idea of the president or the governor going to a street corner or project site, and he awards a contract must stop”.
Arimie emphasised that the laws regulating the award of contracts and other procurement processes must be strictly complied with, if the 2016 budget is to succeed in delivering the dividends of democracy to the people.
He praised the National Assembly for doing a thorough job in painfully scrutinizing the budget , and attributed the effort to the relative independence of the leadership of the 8th National Assembly from the dictates and imposition of the ruling party and the executive.
“The National Assembly has been wonderful. They have done their job. They have done what they’re supposed to do. The other part is left for the executive arm to implement, vis-a-vis the oversight function of the National Assembly,” he said.
“When they start this budget implementation we want to see concrete result; we want to see newspaper adverts for contracts because that is what the Federal Government’s Public Procurement Act says”, he reiterated, adding that “we don’t want to continue in the dark; we don’t want a situation where people start sharing contracts again like in the past”.

Opaka Dokubo