The
Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) yesterday warned Ministries,
Departments and Agencies (MDAs) against awarding contracts that are not
approved in the annual budget, to avoid unnecessary indebtedness to
contractors nationwide.
Director of civil
infrastructure of the Bureau, Nebolisa Emodi, who gave the warning at
the one-day stakeholders’ workshop for Federal MDAs in Abuja, said this
was to help meet the due process requirements in the BPP enabling Act
as well as minimise the risk of domestic debts in the public sector as
a result of extra-budgetary expenditures.
Mr. Emodi, who
stood in for the BPP director general, Emeka Ezeh, however, urged
procurement officers to embark on pre-budget approval procurement
planning to avoid unnecessary delays in the implementation of their
projects when the Appropriation Bill is finally approved by the
National Assembly.
“While it would be
inappropriate for any officer to execute or award a contract without
the necessary approved appropriation law backing such an action, every
MDA, however, can proceed with procurement processes, but cannot
formalise them until the appropriation is approved,” he said.
Transparency and openness
Tracing the problem
with many of the MDAs to their handling of public procurement processes
in secrecy, thereby engendering high level of suspicion and doubt among
stakeholders, Mr. Emodi underscored the need for transparency and
openness in the entire process in order to guarantee confidence among
those not privy to the proposal.
On the requirement
for bid security on all procurement bids, the BPP boss said the
provisions of Section 26 of the Public Procurement Act, which fixes two
per cent of the contract sum, was also being observed in all bidding
processes, to avoid frivolous bidders from participating in the process
as well as ensuring that only serious bidders get involved.
“Bid security is
supposed to ensure that bidders are serious contenders such that if
they succeed they will take part in the project. We don’t want
frivolous bidders. The Act says 2 per cent of the contract value should
be paid as bid security.
“If a bidder
instructs his bank to pay the bid security and he is awarded the
contract and failed to perform, then he loses the amount paid as bid
security. That is one way of ensuring the process is meant for serious
contenders,” Mr. Emodi explained.
Passage
Some participants
at the workshop clamoured for the speedy passage of Appropriation Bills
so that contracts could be awarded, in line with fiscal plans and
time-frame set for such projects each year.
At the 2nd Economic
Policy and Fiscal Strategy seminar recently, the director general,
Budget Office of the Federation (BOF), Bright Okogu, blamed the delay
in the passage of annual budget on the bureaucratic bottlenecks by MDAs
and the lawmakers in the implementation of the budget process.
According to Mr.
Okogu, while the MDAs often pay more attention to how much money is
allocated to them, rather than what they would do to deliver value to
the people, the lawmakers on the other hand, sit on budget proposals
that would not meet their personal interests.
