‘Buhari should inaugurate procurement council’
As a registered Quantity Surveyor, what do you think about public procurement in Nigeria?As you are aware, there is the National Council on Public Procurement [NCPP] established by an Act in 2007 by the then National Assembly but up till date that council has remained comatose since it has not been inaugurated. More so, the […]
As a registered Quantity Surveyor, what do you think about public procurement in Nigeria?
As you are aware, there is the National Council on Public Procurement [NCPP] established by an Act in 2007 by the then National Assembly but up till date that council has remained comatose since it has not been inaugurated. More so, the members of the council did not have professionals on board such as Quantity Surveyors. The absence of such professionals will make it practically, if not impossible for the council to function effectively and come out with a desired results.
Can you explain in detail why you think the council cannot perform effectively without a Quantity Surveyor?
A professional Quantity Surveyor will apply his expert knowledge of costs administration and highly developed analytical ability to estimate the costs of project to achieve a better result. But in a situation where no professional in such field are members of the council, the whole aim would be defeated.
Who and who do you think should be members of NCPP?
Like I told you earlier, a council such as NCPP is a serious council which must have experts in various fields. But most importantly, the role of a registered Quantity Survey in a council on procurement cannot be overemphasized. A complete NCPP should include professional Quantity Surveyor who is also a procurement specialist and project management expert, who clients can have confidence in and get maximum satisfaction for their money.
The NCPP Act which was promulgated in 2007 has 12 members from the public and private sectors. What do you think is wrong with that membership?
Many things are wrong with the membership. First and foremost, the Act we are talking about has not come into being since 2007 when it was passed into law and any action taken that was on that act remains an illegal transactions. According to the Act, the chairman of NCPP is the Minister of Finance who only presents any memo on contract to the Federal Executive Council for approval, by implication more powerful than the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Therefore, that NCPP Act was defective and need to be amended. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should be the chairman of the National Council on Public Procurement and the secretary of the council should be a cost expert. This suggestion, if applied would make the council work effectively. As at now, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) cannot rely on the Act to award any contract, because there was no council on the Public Procurement Act 2007 as provided by the law. Another area of concern is that since the year 2007 when it came into being it has not been inaugurated.
What are the effects of all this?
All this has allowed corruption to strive in public procurement. It has given room for overblown contract sum and at the same time allowed corruption to continue unabated. The government should be able to tackle corruption head on through public procurement when things are put in proper place.
What is the way forward?
It is worthy to note that the interest on delayed payment as specified in section 37(i) of the Act should be amended to state that payment for the procurement of goods, works and services shall be settled promptly and diligently. Since the section explained that any payment due for more than 60 days from the date of the submission of invoice, valuation certificate or confirmation or authentication by the ministry, extra-ministerial office, government agency and parastatal…The intention of this clause is good and sound, but the application will cause confusion, it defeats the essence of cost control mechanism and the Act in general. The major setback or problem is that three different dates are given from when to start counting the period of delayed payment.
What is your advice to the federal government on procurement?
For the federal government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari to succeed, he needs to look at the composition of the NCPP and also assume the chairmanship of the council and inaugurate the National Council on Public Procurement Act 2007 without further delay. I sent a memo to the 7th Senate through the immediate past Senate President David Mark where I made some suggestions. Up till today, we have not received any reply. We suggested the re-composition of the council members, because of the belief that the council is very important in tackling corruption in the country.
Have you ever noticed the number of abandoned projects all over Nigeria, what do you think is responsible?
The absence of effective procurement law has contributed immensely to that, because due process is not followed and the Procurement Act is dangling. Another area is that many contractors did the job up to 90 percent and left it because the clients in some cases the government failed to pay on time. This is where I faulted the announcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN on their debt recovery drive where they failed to consider the lack of prompt payment of contract works especially by government agencies which at the end affect the contractors. I can mention two gigantic projects like that in Kaduna, the Petroleum College and the 44 Military Hospital which have reached 90 percent completion but were abandoned due to failure and delay to pay the contractors on time. The CBN should note that the rate of interests has three components which are inflation, time preference and risk.