Adedayo Akinwale and Amina Hassan in Abuja
Director-General of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, said the bureau was working to digitalise procurement processes and improve access to information. Adedokun made this known yesterday in Abuja, at a stakeholders’ engagement with CSOs on public procurement reforms.
He added that the bureau was also developing a classification system and database for contractors based on their capacity and experience.
The measure, he said, would help prevent companies from securing contracts they lacked the capacity to execute.
The BPP boss also disclosed that the agency was developing a database of procurement officers as part of efforts to professionalise the procurement process.
He said price intelligence mechanisms were being developed to provide benchmarks for public projects and flag possible cases of inflated costs.
Adedokin emphasised that the bureau was developing a BPP-CSO Public Procurement Partnership Framework to give civil society a more structured role in monitoring public procurement.
He said the framework would cover capacity building, access to procurement information and data, reporting and feedback, monitoring of procurement processes and citizen engagement.
He stated, “The bureau is working to digitalise procurement processes and improve access to information.
“BPP is developing a platform where registered CSOs would be able to access information on projects in their areas and provide feedback on their implementation.
“The aim is to move public procurement beyond compliance with procedures and ensure that government spending translated into projects and services that improved the lives of citizens.”
The BPP boss said CSOs had an important role to play in monitoring public projects, particularly in communities where poor procurement decisions could directly affect access to schools, hospitals, roads, electricity, and other public services.
Adedokun said the relationship between government and civil society had often been affected by mistrust, with CSOs sometimes viewing government agencies as unresponsive, while officials regarded civil society groups as adversarial.
He stressed that the proposed partnership was intended to address this without compromising the independence of CSOs.
The director-general stated that the bureau was also promoting community-based procurement to allow local businesses to participate in smaller government contracts where they had the capacity to deliver.
On the proposed review of the Public Procurement Act 2007, Adedokun said the law needed to reflect changes in technology and the growing complexity of public projects.
He said the review should also address capacity building, affirmative procurement, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and local content.
“Can procurement practices developed almost two decades ago continue to address the realities of modern public projects?” he asked.
Adedokun urged CSOs to provide credible evidence of contractors who failed to deliver public projects, saying such information would assist the bureau in taking appropriate action in line with due process.
He also said BPP was strengthening collaboration with anti-corruption agencies, including Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), particularly in the areas of information sharing and investigations.
Earlier, Programmes Coordinator, Social Action Nigeria, Botti Isaac, urged CSOs to move beyond criticising government and take a more active role in monitoring public procurement and service delivery.
Isaac said access to procurement data, verification of social outcomes, and civic oversight were some of the areas where civil society could contribute to procurement reform.
He called for greater access to procurement and contract award information, saying CSOs should be able to follow projects from needs assessment and procurement planning through tendering, contract award and implementation.
Isaac also advocated the wider use of beneficial ownership information to help identify the individuals behind companies receiving public contracts.
He proposed a civil society-led public procurement “situation room” across the geopolitical zones to allow groups at state and community levels to share information on procurement activities.