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Not a few stakeholders in Plateau State have called for the autonomy of the Bureau for Public Procurement to strengthen its activities and enable it to carry out its responsibilities effectively.
They made the call in Jos on Friday during the Plateau State Open Contracting Stakeholders’ Meeting where state and non-state actors deliberated on the challenges in open contracting and proffered solutions to the issues that would promote transparency and accountability in governance.
Speaking at the event organised by the Accountability Lab Nigeria through its Anti-Corruption Innovation Project, funded by the United Nations Development Programme, the stakeholders noted that everyone has a role to play in effective governance and thus urged citizens to get involved, especially in monitoring any public-funded projects in their communities.
The Lead Facilitator, Onyekachi Chukwu, pointed out the challenges in open contracting to include, “lack of citizens engagement (low data use), lack of technical capacity (insufficient work tools), low incentive for procurement officers, lack of proper monitoring and evaluation, political indifference/lack of political will, and no autonomy for the Bureau for Public Procurement, among others.”
He explained that there is a difference between the government’s commitment and the will to be open in governance. Hence, the citizens, civil society organisations, and the media’s active involvements could make a difference.
Alfred Agu, the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Associate of Accountability Lab Nigeria, said his organisation has worked with other partners to support and ensure sustainable collaborations among stakeholders around public procurement initiatives.
He stressed that the collaborations have seen citizens pushing for transparency in the procurement processes, and the meeting is to spur the participants to talk about possible solutions and recommendations that would improve public procurement practices.
Agu further observed, “…procurement officers don’t have the tools to carry out their jobs efficiently, there’s some political interference in the processes and this is why we’re here to put our minds together, look for next steps on how we can find solutions and also make recommendations to the government…”
The Acting Director-General of the State Bureau of Public Procurement, Yabilsu Dogo identified some of the challenges of the Bureau including the lack of vehicles for monitoring, lack of office accommodation, and lack of adequate staff, among others, while also listing some of the steps taken to address the issues.
His words, “We at the Bureau of Public Procurement, are not without challenges, challenges ranging from office accommodation to mobility and others. We have written to the government, and the government is already taking necessary actions to mitigate them. The office was flooded recently. We are hopeful that these will be looked into.”
He urged all the players in the procurement sector to keep everything open, as the name implies, saying, “Nothing should be hidden in open contracting.”
Participants were drawn from the ministries, departments, agencies, civil society organisations, and the media, who were all sensitised on effective procurement practices.
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