Posted by From Kunle Aderinokun in Abuja on
Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) yesterday said the country is losing about N40bn annually to frauds and....
Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) yesterday said the country is losing about N40bn annually to frauds and malpractices arising from manipulation of contract procedures.
Making this disclosure yesterday in Abuja at a Special Training Workshop on Public Procurement Reforms for Procurement Officers From States of the Federation, Special Adviser to the President and Head, BMPIU, Prof. Kunle Ade Wahab added , "it was also discovered that, all manner of people rush into politics with an eye to occupy sensitive offices to dispense contracts."
This, according to him, has "created a situation where strategic planning, evolvement of policies and strategies to advance the Nigerian society to modern development driven by knowledge, creativity, industry, research, innovation, inventions, are quite often abandoned."
He stressed that "Due Process is the application of the principles of openness or transparency, competency or qualification and competition or equal opportunity to all in the conduct and award of contracts."
He explained that, "the aim is to ensure that the winner, the cost and the quality are right for every kobo the Nigerian public treasury spends in the purchase of goods and services." "A major objective is to creative opportunity for innovation, local enterprise, creativity and genuine interest to make money through hard work and service delivery. The era where virtually everybody in Nigeria become a contractor, is what the reforms seek to end.
Procurement is a special area that requires professionalism, competency and integrity."
Wahab stated the training workshop which was organized for 16 states became necessary because of the concern of the administration to spread the reforms to all tiers and levels of government.
Pointing out that the Federal Government gets only about 48 per cent from the federation account while the state and local governments receive the remaining 52 per cent, he said.
"if the resources from the states are not managed efficiently and prudently, it will be difficult for the Nigerian masses, especially the majority of the rural dweller to feel the impact of government."
Prudent management of the nation's resources at both the three tiers of government, he said, will "make it easier for government to provide services to all, in areas of health, roads, education, security, electrification and other social amenities."
According to him, "the presence of these amenities will make businesses to grow and thrive. This will bring about expansion of productive capacity of the nation's economy, opportunities for investment, employment and better social security in our nation."
These, he believed, could not be achieved, "unless and
until states and local governments embrace the ongoing economic reforms, which have reached an advanced stage at the federal level."