BPP saved Nigeria N1.9trn from contract fraud – DG

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, on Thursday, disclosed that the agency had saved Nigeria from losing a whooping N1.9trn to random contract frauds over the years.

Adedokun made the revelation during his budget defence session with the Senate Committee on Public Procurement in Abuja.

The BPP boss said the agency set up 17 years ago, remains a key stakeholder in the war against corruption, particularly those that have something to do with contracts award, inflation and diversion.

The bureau has been changing the landscape of public procurement in Nigeria by ensuring transparency, fairness and efficiency in contract awards and execution.

“The BPP has been saving the country from loss of at least N40bn annually to contracts inflation, diversion of public funds and poor service delivery.

“Records from our price intelligence unit indicate that the total money prevented so far from being diverted to personal pockets from contract awards is N1.9 trillion.

“It has over the years been significantly contributing to increasing revenue generation by the relevant agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service and Nigeria Pension Commission, among others.”

Adedokun, however, lamented that while BPP made a proposition of N63.5bn as a capital vote for 2025, the budget office handed them only an N1 57bn envelope.

The paltry figure, according to him, can not help in any way resolve a series of challenges which included the accommodation problem faced by the staff of the bureau, replacement of the moribund project monitoring vehicles which were bought in 2008 as well as the execution of the e-procurement programme that is still in the pipeline.

His appeal drew the sympathy of the committee chaired by Senator Olajide Ipinsagba (APC Ondo North), which also raised concerns about how the BPP, with just 158 workers, could effectively monitor contract awards and execution of over 800 government agencies under its purview.

Consequently, the committee, through the chairman, directed the bureau DG to include the employment of more workers in the agency’s 2025 budget.