Experts from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria (CIPSMN,) at the weekend, tasked National Assembly with the need to ensure thorough scrutiny of the 2023 budget proposal to be transmitted by President Muhammadu Buhari in line with the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Tribune Online authoritatively gathered that the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning had transmitted the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Policy Paper (FSP) to the National Assembly leadership in the bid to fast-track its passage.
Speaking at the sideline of the 2022 Group D induction ceremony of the new members held in Abuja, CIPSMN President, Alhaji Jubrin Ado underscored the need to checkmate the activities of non-professionals appointed as Procurement Officers in the federal civil service as well as the private sector.
He said: “We expect them (members of the National Assembly) to be honest and identify what actually Nigerians needed and make sure that everything that are needed are included in the budget.
“Especially looking at what the Executive is going to present because the budget starts from the Executive. So let them check and make sure that whatever is passing through them are what Nigerians needed and what would be of importance to Nigerians.”
While stressing the need to block all forms of corruption amidst the dwindling revenue, he said: “We are losing resources through a lot of leakages and the major reason has to do with procurement.
“So there is a need to professionalise procurement so that offices that are supposed to handle the procurement are professionals.”
To this end, he underscored the need for Federal Government and policymakers to engage “trusted professionals that are to be appointed as Procurement Officers from up to down. That is the way to close the leakages.”
On his part, CIPSMN Registrar/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Alhaji Mohammed Aliyu called on the government at all levels to adopt good principles and standards for procurement and public financial management.
Alhaji Aliyu also called on the government to implement procurement guidelines to ensure compliance with Public Procurement Act 2007 to ensure maximum transparency in bidding processes or public contracts.
He observed that the non-constitution of the BPP Council as encapsulated in its establishment Act poses a great danger to the economy and encourages endemic corruption, just as he condemned the recent corruption levelled against the erstwhile Accountant General of the Federation who is currently being tried in the law court.
In the bid to tackle the menace, he harped on the urgent need to domesticate and apply the principles of procurement in our system for probity and accountability.
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“Procurement is a peculiar case that everybody wants to do the job without the knowledge But the issue still remains that in an area where you don’t have the knowledge, you do it wrongly.
“The institute is working very hard to ensure that best practice is domesticated in our country.
“That is the bane of the problem we have in our country where everybody thinks that resources have to be mismanaged because resources of this country are into the procurement of contracts and services,” he said.
According to him, based on a study carried out by the World Bank in conjunction with the Institute, it clearly stated that 80 to 90 per cent of the entire budget goes to the procurement contract and services.
“An area that consumes the largest chunk of the budget which is procurement. Based on the study carried out by the World Bank in conjunction with the Institute in 1999 and 2000, the report stated clearly that 80 to 90 per cent of the total budget goes into procurement, contracts and services.”
While venting his view, CIOSMN North Central Coordinator, Mr Abdul Mamman, said this at the 2022 Group B Induction Ceremony of new members in Abuja on Friday.
According to him, the institute has so far inducted over 3,000 Graduates, with over 400 Graduands inducted in Group B Batch.
Mamman said that professionalising it would make people open to the vagaries and complexities of procurement and understand the technicalities and as such when challenged, they would be able to offer services effectively in line with international best practices.
“In Nigeria today, there are people who are doing this particular job by way of ‘man-know-man and they never understand the fundamentals of dignity involved than carries the integrity in procurement.
“And there have been several calls that procurement activities in Nigeria are an area where much of the corrupt activities are done but as it is most of our members who as professionals are usually not allowed to do what they are to do but rather those who are first to get it are not qualified.
“The ethics of the profession is taught and endangered in the practice of procurement and supply chain in Nigeria.
“As at the time we wanted to carry out this reform, we decided to domesticate the law as obtained in other countries and other spheres but the first chapter of that law that has to do with the national council of public procurement has been violated, it has not been inaugurated till this moment.
“It is only the current administration that tried in 2017 to inaugurate the council, the council is supposed to be a board to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) as the BPP is supposed to be a secretariat.
“But now it has no board overseeing their activities which is inimical to utilising the content of that particular law which was passed in 2007 by the government of late President Umaru Yar’Adua,” he said.
He, therefore, called on Federal Government to inaugurate the BPP Council to oversee and take up their respective positions as embedded in the law so as to intervene in the activities of the Bureau.
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Experts task NASS on 2023 budget, procurement processes
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