Speech presented at the second phase of National Sensitisation and Enlightenment Programme on the Public Procurement Act 2007 In Port Harcourt

This sensitisation season marks another phase of our efforts at creating awareness amongst the citizenry on the principles and importance of public procurement. We made progress in this regard last year and we are continuing this year. It is important to continue to tell our people what we need to gain by following procedures in public contracting, so that we can make the much desired social, economic and political progress. I am optimistic, like I do know many of you are that we shall sooner than later take Nigeria to the promised land.

Let me, however, tell again how we got to where we are, so that we can understand the present and probably interpret the future. The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) was established in 2007 following the signing into law of its enabling act by President Umar Musa Yar’Adua. It was the first act to be signed into law by the new president. The Bureau developed through the former office of Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU), established in 2001 by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The bureau emerged because of the need to check the open abuse of rules and standards in the award and execution of public contracts in Nigeria. The abuses were evident in over-invoicing, inflation of contract costs, proliferation of white-elephant projects and diversion of public funds through all kinds of manipulations of the contract system. The implication of these lapses in the country’s procurement system over the years was the abandonment of governments projects after large sums of money have been paid out to contractors from public funds. Above all, it brought about endemic corruption, poor service delivery, poverty and denial of social amenities to the people.

The vision of the BPP is to restore transparency, competition, competence, integrity and value for money in the award and execution of public contracts in Nigeria. The BPP, therefore, implements a Procurement Reform Agenda that uses what can be called a Due Process Mechanism to restore and maintain openness, competition, budgetary discipline, optimal costs and efficient projects implementation in a planned and coordinated framework.

The BPP has long being involved in several sensitisation efforts across the country. With the support of the WorId Bank Economic Reform and Governance (ERGP) project, the bureau, has been educating the Nigerian populace on the importance of implementing best procurement practices. There have been and would continue to be newspaper adverts, journal publications, Radio and TV jingles on the activities of the bureau and on details of the public procurement act. The bureau has also been organising conferences so the nation can expand their understanding of the ethics of public procurement. One such conference, an international one, was recently held between June 29th and 30th in Abuja. It was attended by resource persons from across sections of the world and it afforded us an opportunity to compare notes with other countries, so that we can benefit from their procurement experiences and they might also gain from us. The sensitisation, education and public awareness processes are continuing in the interest of establishing best procurement practices consciousness amongst the citizenry. This would eventually lead to a change in attitude and then an attendant development of the countries’ institutions.

For the bureau to achieve its objectives, it has been consistent in insisting on the need for probity, transparency and accountability within its management. The leadership has often emphasised the need to show example by ensuring that what is preached is implemented in the bureau. The bureau’s officials have often been educated on the need not to compromise their integrity in the course of their duties. The bureau hopes to achieve its aim through ensuring forthrightness in its activities and through constant training and retraining of its staff.

As a new policy, the implementation of the Procurement reforms has continued to generate fears, debates and concerns in some quarters. Experience has showed that there are some elites who have a good understanding of what the bureau stands for and are, therefore, ready to help it work. There are also those who genuinely do not understand its modus operandi, which is why the bureau has been painstaking in sensitisation and in creating awareness.

At the same time, there are beneficiaries of the old order, who understands the multiple benefits of the public procurement reform policy but deliberately and out of self and narrow interest, choose to misinform, misrepresent, vilify and condemn the genuine intentions of government with the goal of frustrating the idea. Some politicians are also unrelenting in trying to prevent the proper operations of the bureau, but we have been sustained by the determination of the President Umar Yar’Adua’s anti-­corruption stand and are assured of the need to steady our gait in falling in line.

The bureau has commenced its constitutional responsibility to ensure that all the provisions of the Public Procurement Act are strictly followed in the award and execution of all government contracts. Intensive public enlightenment campaigns on procedures in contract award and execution by MDAs and the role of stakeholders including contractors, consultants and, the general public are ongoing through the BPP jingles on radio and television stations. The bureau’s audit monitoring of the budget as constitutionally guaranteed, is also ongoing as part of a holistic attempt at ensuring a successful fiscal policy.

Other than that, the bureau is presently organising workshops for stakeholders in different government ministries and departments. The first was held July 27th and 28th for procurement personnel in the Federal Ministry of Works and- Housing. It is continuing as it would also be done for other ministries. Once again, I welcome us all and wish us all successful interactive session.

Eze is the Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP)