April 7, 2018

Mr Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), has directed pararastatals and agencies to comply with the Federal Government circulars on procurement plans and records.

Mustapha gave the directive on Saturday in Abuja at the 2018 Procurement Retreat for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Federal Government parastatals and agencies.

The retreat, with the theme “Public Procurement for Sustainable National Development” was organised by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), in partnership with the office of the SGF.

Mustapha represented by Mr Olusegun Adekinle, a Permanent Secretary in the Office of the SGF, cautioned government agencies against doing business with contractors without proper registration on the national database.

He called on participants at the retreat to constantly liaise with their supervisory ministries to ensure strict compliance with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.

The SGF said government would not hesitate to deal with erring agencies that were yet to submit their procurement plans and records for 2017 and 2018.

“It is mandatory for every government agency to use the public procurement documents as authorised by the BPP, such as, the Standard Bidding Documents (SBDs) and other BPP documents.

“All agencies must de-emphasise the use of selective tendering methods as the norm rather than the Open Competitive methods as prescribed by the Public Procurement Act.

“Agencies must ensure that they have the final engineering design for any project to reduce the high rate of fluctuations and variations,” he said.

Mustapha said the Federal Government was in the process of implementing E-Procurement process that would help prevent corruption, adding that BPP was a preventive agency.

He called on the retreat participants to embrace accountability, transparency and integrity in procurement process, adding that the idea was to enhance budget implementation process.

“I therefore, urge you CEOs to be thorough and careful in the discharge of your responsibilities in the public procurement process with the highest sense of accountability, ethics and integrity.

“It is expected that all factors militating against effective performance of budget implementation will be addressed promptly,” he said.

In her remark, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation said the retreat was apt considering the need to enhance the capacities of CEOs of parastatals and agencies.

Oyo-Ita represented by  Mr Ndubusi Okeji, a Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Head of Service said the continuous capacity building of CEOs on procurement process would enhance professionalism.

She said the retreat would impact positively in budget preparation and implementation and pledged the commitment of her office to continuously collaborate with the BPP.