Civil society actors and professionals in the country under the auspices of Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative, PRADIN, have described as dangerous, a recent proposal by the House of Representatives to amend the Public Procurement Act, PPA, 2007.
Speaking at a news conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital, National Cordinator of PRADIN, Mohammed B. Attah, noted that “the Act and those before it, have failed to take into consideration the implications on the economy and the need to move Nigeria from the ugly image of corruption.”
Besides, ” while all energies have been devoted to amending the law these past 10 years, it is surprising that such energies have failed in addressing the fundamental challenge of corruption. As a fact, procurement accounts for over 70% of total corruption in public sector, and all efforts must be devoted to addressing this canker worm,” Mohammed emphasised.
The amendments being sought by the lower legislative chamber cover three areas thus: increase of contracts mobilisation fee from 15% to 50%, removal of the Finance Minister as chair of Public Procurement Council, and inclusion of National Defence and Security Agencies in procurement Process.
According to the national coordinator, “while we do not have any reservation on the third proposal above,which we believe will increase transparency in the management of defence and security spending, there are however some legal issues and conflicts in the first and second proposals above, which are the request to increase mobilisation fees to 50% from 15% and the proposal to remove the Minister of Finance as Chairman of the yet-to-be inaugurated National Council for Public Procurement, NCPP.
“Therefore, our position and recommendation is that the Bill as read at the floor of the House of Representative should be discarded as it is against the spirit of transparency and accountability.
“The President should be encouraged and advised to constitute and inaugurate the National Council for Public Procurement, NCPP, as the most effective tool in fighting corruption and sustaining the Change Agenda of the present administration,” Attah noted.
Meanwhile, the Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative, had earlier in a letter made available to reporters at the briefing conveyed its discontent over the proposed amendment to the Speaker, House of Representatives as well as Chairman Committee on Civil Society and Development Partners.
