The Rivers State Board of Bureau on public procurement (RSBOP), says efforts are been made to strengthen the existing procurement processes leading to the award of contracts and jobs execution in the state to achieve efficient service delivery to the people.

These measures are a deliberate and determined efforts put in place by the board to ensure that contract awarding and job executions are done in accordance with the procurement laws in the state.

The Chairman of the RSBOP, Lawrence Oko_Jaja, SAN disclosed this while speaking to journalists at corporate headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers state after an interactive meeting held with staffs of the agency, Friday.

Oko_Jaja who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN) stated that procurement has become a global issues, stressing that without a proper procurement plan, it will be difficult for any state or nation to move forward in the attainment of it’s developmental strategies and goals.

The chairman averred that the board has observed some improprieties in the procurement processes on how things are been done which were not in geared to promote value for money and assured that the present Board of the agency would take every measures to ensure that the state procurement laws establishing are adhered and complained with.

“We will ensure that the laws are followed and we have value for money that the procurement must ensure that money is used for contract execution and not to enriched peoples pocket.

To ensure that the money been quoted for any job or contract correspond with the prevailing market price ,we are going to strengthen the monitoring and evaluating team of board to perform their duties, going to markets, verify the prices quoted for and also ensure compliance.

“We are going to look into the procurement law to see how we can closed the existing gaps noticed that are not in line with global practices . This measures will also affect local government area councils in the state to ensure there is value for money and save money for the state government and in doing so, the government can spread its services across the state and not in one place”

” His excellency, the governor of the state has a mantra “Rivers first” we are going to ensure we assist him and the state government achieve this policy by ensuring that the procurement laws are complied with and things are done rightly that is why we are here “he stated.

Oko_Jaja assured that members of the board will not take the opportunity given to them by his the state governor lightly but that they will justified the confidence reposed on them for the benefits of the state.

Earlier, during an interactive staff general meeting with Board members held to brief them on some key decisions taken so far by the Board which are geared to achieve efficiency in policy implementation and ensure that staffs deliver there job responsibilities efficiently.

Mr. Oko_Jaja told the excited workforce that the board has approved the merger of some departments like the legal department, ethics department, the human resources department and the facility management department to ensure maximum output and efficacy in service delivery, adding that the legal and ethics department have been merged to together as one department, while the human resources department and facility management has also be merged together.

He told them that going forward every department will be responsible for it’s responsibilities so to be accountable in the their job delivery and announced that the board has also approved the establishment of a working conditions of service for workers to improve on their welfare as well as to allow staff of the agency grow in the service cadre like their counterparts in the state mainstream civil service as well as other approvals.

Our correspondent reports that the meeting was the first board meeting for the year as well as the first general staff meeting with members of the Board since its inauguration last October by the state governor.

Akujobi Amadi