|
Probe of Ministries:The Role of Procurement Audit-
By Anthony Akalugo
Newsdiaryonline Sat July 16,2011
‘Jonathan orders probe of the ministries’ was the caption of a
report of the Nation newspaper Friday 15th July 2011.
To
many well meaning Nigerians, this is a giant step taken in the
right direction. While to some perennial critics, it is only but
a deceitful step which will eventually lead us to nowhere.
We
need to critically examine the nature of the Nigerian Nation and
the endemic incongruence in expenditure. It is surprising that
this has been a pattern of public conduct irrespective of who
takes over the mantle and leads the government bodies. Many have
turned critics, not for the fact that they want it to be done
right but for their voices to be recognized while some have been
out rightly selfless in their fight, not based on any pecuniary
interest. Otherwise, if the greater percentage of Nigerians were
to be on the frugal orientation, and actually want the system to
be sanitized the inexplicable culture of looting and
misappropriation would not have garnered such endemic status.
However, something has to be done and fast, too. We have
observed as a matter of necessity that the practice of
historical analysis of transactions in Nigeria has left a big
void in the culture of process and future based action
management.
I
was privileged to interact with a self styled political
kingmaker in a southern state. He commented that one should not
allow his political opponent first to be declared a winner
before fighting to reverse the decision. This, according to him
places the prosecutor at a disadvantage because at such a
moment, the defendant would have accessed the instrument and
resources of government, which he will use to fight back.
Similarly, he said that those who are privileged to be appointed
into political offices leave no stone unturned irrespective of
the presence of the anti-corruption agencies. To him, it is only
those who did not make enough money that get harassed because
you will use part of your loot to fight back. This line of his
though largely explains the reason for many who were looked upon
as harmless and sincere to turn overnight into monsters and
greedy folks.
It
is therefore welcome news to read the call by the president for
full scale audit, citing that the fight must start from the top.
This is absolutely commendable. But how effective is the
structure that will act on the audit outcome? How do we
establish judicious use of resources only through historical
analysis of income and expenditure whereas the major vessel to
bleed the system is not attended to?
The
Public Procurement Act, 14, 2007 was established to drive the
concept of transparency and application of best principles in
the public conduct of procurement activities. The Act provides
in Section 5 (p) that the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP,
will “perform procurement audits and submit such report to the
National Assembly bi-annually.”
How
many procurement audit reports of the Ministries, Departments
and Agencies of the various governments have procurement Audit
conducted on their activities and submitted to the National
Assembly to date?
It
is a well known fact that procurement of goods, works and
services gulps over 70% of annual budget, how effective has been
the implementation of the provisions of the public procurement
Act, PPA 2007 in the institutions?
Section 5 (o) states thus “review the procurement and award of
contract procedures of every entity to which this Act applies”.
This section provides that the Bureau shall as a matter of
mandamus approve procedures that will guide the procuring
entities irrespective of whether the transaction is within the
review threshold or not. In this sense, all procurement conducts
are suppose to comply with internal cost management mechanism as
well as external demand of compliance to open competitive
policy, where necessary.
As
the President directs the EFCC and the various agencies, and the
office of the Auditor General to enforce the audit of the
entities, it is pertinent to note that process flow needs to be
audited to ascertain needs and subsequent actions and thus to
determine the validity of the expense factors. Without a
thorough perusal of internal and external procurement
activities, the cost factor will be sacrosanct and thus will
hide all the fraudulent conducts of the Ministries, Agencies and
Departments. It simply means that the audit outcome will be an
aberration.
It
is important at this juncture to investigate the performance
level of the Bureau of Public Procurement thus far. How often
have they been able to conduct the audit exercise as was
mandated by the provisions of the Act? How much visible effort
has the Bureau committed to this important facet of drive to
forestall fraudulent conduct? How has the Bureau conducted its
activities in line with the Provisions of the Act that
established it?
Section 5 (a) stipulates that “the Bureau shall formulate the
general policies and guidelines relating to public sector
procurement for the approval of the Council” Even if the Bureau
has attempted to carry out the functions as stated in the Act,
to conduct Audit, it still lacks the requisite authority to
disclose to an authority, the outcome of its conduct without the
consent of the National Council on Public Procurement (NCPP).
Unfortunately, the government has not helped the conduct of the
established procurement institutions through the
non-inauguration of the National Council on Public Procurement.
How therefore will the government achieve transparency and
accountability and value for money where the main engine of
frugality is held in comatose?
“The
President said the battle against corruption had been taken a
notch up, with a directive to anti-graft agencies, the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)
to beam their searchlight on ministries and government
departments. They are also to focus on the other tiers of
government.” The Nation Newspaper’s report.
This
is a step in the right direction but the fundamental issue is:
how can they ascertain full compliance to procurement
regulations, which shall gulp over 70% of the budgets of the
respective institutions including in-and-off threshold, without
putting the right structures in place?
The
composition and inauguration of the National Council on Public
Procurement (NCPP) should take preeminence while the proper
constitution of the members of the Bureau of Public Procurement
will follow suit.
I
hereby urge the President to inaugurate the Council with
immediate effect, charge them, in the same spirit, to quickly
correct all anomalies and work to sanitize the procurement
system in the country. This calls for a strong political will,
which will obviously run contrary to the interest of the
professional politicians and profit-minded kingmakers.
Roethke would say “when I get to an open sky where men are not
too evident, then I am tremendously exalted and a thousand vivid
ideas flood my consciousness” I am sure that it calls for an
uncommon will to row the both against the tide, especially, in
Nigeria where there are many who wish to dwell in putrefying
system without hope of revival.
However, it calls for an uncommon clout to surmount such
interests and introduce policies and structures that will revive
the economy and guarantee future for the country. Should Mr.
President decide to play in this uncommon field, then he would
have succeeded in etching his name in the golden book of heroes
of all times. Yes, there could be challenges, but the success is
guaranteed.
As
the Ministries, Departments and Agencies are subjected to
financial audit, we appeal to the President to call for
immediate conduct of Procurement Audit in those government
entities to ensure a thorough audit feedback for sound policy
formulation. We can get it right from this step.
A partnership with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing
and Supply Management of Nigeria, CIPSMN, is advised.
Anthony Akalugo, is a Procurement and Supply Chain Consultant,
the General Manager, Consulting Services, Daca Consults Limited,
Lagos. E-mail:
consultantprocurersng@yahoo.com
|
