By Olasunkanmi Onifade
The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) says an electronic procurement system is underway for the country.
The Director-General of BPP, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja when a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) delegation paid a courtesy visit to his office.
The delegation was led by the Managing Director of NAN, Malam Ali Muhammad Ali.
Adedokun said the bureau was already working with the National Assembly to amend the Public Procurement Act as part of the process to implement the initiative.
He also said President Bola Tinubu had approved a community-based procurement model proposed by the Federal Ministry of Health and BPP for immediate implementation.
Adedokun said the community- based initiative was to give Nigerians opportunity to bid for contracts without coming to Abuja.
He explained that under the model, Nigerians could bid for “low-hanging contracts” through application of technology.
“What that means is that you can actually bid for a contract as a local on your phone, get your money transferred to you.
“Ciivil society leaders and traditional leaders will confirm that that project has been done before payments will be done,” he said.
Adedokun added that the initiative was designed to keep funds within local economies and reduce security risks associated with travelling to Abuja to seek contracts.
“We no longer want Abuja-based contractors to still go to our local governments and collect what the others can do.”
The director general also said that government now has a debarment policy to sanction non-performing contractors.
“Under this administration and for the first time, we have a debarment policy that says a contractor that does bad jobs should be shamed, published nationally and internationally, and must not get jobs again for a period of time,’’Adedokun said.
Earlier, Ali had expressed concern that many achievements of the administration were not being celebrated because MDAs were not giving them adequate publicity.
According to him, NAN’s credibility makes it the preferred platform for institutions and media-savvy institutions.
“Our clients say if it’s going to NAN, then it’s going to be authentic.
“When you talk to NAN, you are talking to all. Give us your statement, your press release, the rest I assure you that within a few minutes, others like you will get it,” Ali said.
NAN reports that BPP was established by the Public Procurement Act of 2007, succeeding the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU), which was created in 2001 to implement reforms for transparency, competition, and value-for-money in government spending.
NAN