Reps back independent monitoring of procurement process

From Emeka Anuforo


THE House of Representatives may have thrown its weight behind the recent
efforts by civil society organisations, through the Public and Private
Development Centre (PPDC), to create an independent procurement monitoring
portal for the nation.

Chairman of the House Committee on Public Procurement, Yusuf Maitama
Tuggar, gave this indication when promoters of the independent monitoring
system paid his committee a visit in Abuja.

Tuggar stressed that the National Assembly would work with
non-governmental organisations to ensure compliance with the procurement
law.

Noting that procurement was at the centre of some of the ills of Nigeria,
he explained that one of the ways to check such was to have an act to
monitor procurement to make it comply with laid down rules.

Tuggar pointed out that the legislative arm was concerned about the lack
of procurement implementation, noting that the House alone does not have
the capacity to cover procurement nationwide.

According to him, with initiatives formed by companies like the PPDC, a
fair amount of procurement could be covered together.

He advocated that there should be a link on the portal giving members of
the public access to the website of the committee, to ensure that
Nigerians have access to what the committee is doing. The legislator
further called for the setting up of an adhoc committee to facilitate a
synergy and the PPDC secretariat.

PPDC coordinator, Mr. Chibuzo Ekwekwuo, stressed that the aim of the
independent monitory project was to improve citizens' participation in
governance in a way that supports improved integrity and prevents
corruption in Nigeria.

He said: "There is no doubt that corruption is a major cause of poverty,
and no sector bears the risk for corruption more than the Procurement
Sector in Nigeria. Public procurement is a key aspect of delivery of
social services and by extension, socio-economic development. This
explains why our country embarked on Procurement Reforms.

"After the passage of the Public Procurement Act 2007, PPDC designed and
launched its procurement watch programme, which sought to activate the
citizens' monitoring provisions in that law.

"This programme activated organised CSOs engagement of relevant public
bodies for purposes of procurement observation, and actual observation of
procurement by CSOs and some professional bodies in Nigeria.

"But as we watched CSOs and Professional bodies get invited and monitor
the procurement exercise, we discovered many challenges; few CSOs have
technical knowledge, skills and resources required to monitor procurement,
there is a concentration of few NGO's with capacity in and around Abuja."

He added: "Despite the access to information provisions of the Act, levels
of access to information and access to procurement proceedings remains
limited, partly because of resistance within procuring entities and partly
because CSOs and professional bodies are yet to assert the full measure of
the provisions of the Act.

"In addition, it became clear to us that for procurement monitoring to
achieve its intended objectives, CSO's and professional bodies need a
mechanism to collate, analyse and make sense of feed back from the various
monitoring activities. Results of monitoring need to support the oversight
functions of the BPP and more important the legislature."

To ensure shared ownership, as well as synergy with other existing
development programmes, he said that the PPDC was setting up an
independent advisory board for the portal.