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Jega’s procurement
failure:The
end of an era-
By Anthony Chibundu
Akalugo
The
failure of INEC to conduct the National Assembly elections,
comprising the elections
for the Senate and the House of the Representatives on 2nd
April 2011 has been viewed as a colossal setback on the
confidence of Nigerians and the international communities in
terms of our inability to do things right, especially, an act to
deepen Nigeria’s nascent democracy.
Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman, stated that “we
deeply regret this situation and apologize to Nigerians for the
hardship this may have created… it is regrettable, it is
unfortunate, it should not have happened. Under normal
circumstances this kind of thing does not happen. It is terribly
unfortunate that it has happened but what can we do? Man
proposes, God disposes” – the Nation newspaper, 3rd
April 2011.
Professor Jega has demonstrated humble disposition in his open
acceptance of the failure of his team. This is a commendable
quality of a leader.
However, it will be an aberration if Nigerians will not seize
this opportunity to x-ray the lacuna inherent in the traditional
process of conducting operations, which manifests glaring
disregard for improved methodologies. We can only consent to the
saying “… God disposes”, where we have applied all requisite
principles and it still fails. But we all know that the best
principles are far from being implemented properly.
It
is pertinent to note that advancement in technology hinges on
knowhow and equipment. There is no improvement anywhere in the
world where there is stagnation and disregard of human expertise
and dearth of requisite knowledge; while any form of machine is
designed to perform optimally. The world trend of economic
dynamics has migrated from the traditional concept of
organizational structuring to supply chain driven structuring,
where sub-system optimization provides the seamless platform for
best cost of ownership.
The
Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2007, Part iv, article 16,
subsection 1e states thus “subject to any exemption allowed by
this Act, all public procurement shall be conducted: with the
aim of achieving value
for money and
fitness for purpose. Subsection 1f states thus: in a manner
which promotes competition, economy and efficiency.
Storhagen once said that “customer requirements demand more and
more flexibility in the supply of materials as well as in the
production and distribution. The efficiency of logistics within
the production system is getting more and more important in the
role as a creator for
flexibility and
integration”. This is a necessary requirement to achieve
fitness of purpose within the framework of competitiveness thus
achieving value for money.
According to Christopher Martin, logistics management is the
means through which the needs of the customers are satisfied
through the coordination of the materials and information flows
that extend from the market-place, through the firm and its
operations and beyond to the suppliers.
In
his views, “to achieve this requires a quite different
orientation from that typically encountered in the
conventional
organizations”. Within our MDAs, we encounter the barriers
created by departmentalization, which impedes flow through
operations due to bureaucracy and unitization. In this vein,
there could not be applicable the sub-optimization of processes
to produce cost effective outcome for the entire organization.
Prof. Jega rightly stated that…this should not have happened. It
however remains to be established how much verifiably ready was
INEC prior to the scheduled Election Day. A check list of
activities nodes detailing the timelines can help us out.
Many
people have indeed advanced different reasons for the
disappointing failure. We shall therefore analyze some of the
opinions some advanced as follows:
a.
Sabotage:
Nigerians have the culture of adducing that for everything that
happens, there are
internal and
external factors. I have heard many people who alleged that
politicians who do not want the transition to be successful lest
someone take glory for successful conduct of free and fair
elections could have gone ahead to sabotage the process. Some
have been blaming the president for appointing someone he knows
is incompetent.
We
seem to forget in a hurry how Nigerians celebrated the
appointment of Professor Jega, as a man of impeccable character
and will who has what it takes to conduct free and fair
elections. Among this school of thought, we recognize the short
memories and impatient nature of Nigerians. Who would have been
a better character than one who has a pedigree of standing up to
dictatorship, a renowned fighter (comrade), seasoned university
administrator and a political scholar?
b.
Iwu’s lieutenants:
some Nigerians have demonstrated horrible aggression whenever
there is any mention of the erstwhile INEC chairman, Prof.
Maurice Iwu. Some have alleged that Prof. Jega ought to have
totally disconnected from Prof. Iwu, removed the members of the
old brigade to form a fresh team to prosecute a credible
election. The idea
remains that through the assumed manipulation by Prof. Iwu, they
would be able to frustrate the new helmsman and ensure he does
not succeed. It is worthy of note that, for an election to be
conducted successfully within six months of Prof. Jega’s
appointment and assumption of office demands experienced team
and mastery of duties. Besides, though there were visible flaws
in the conduct of the previous elections but the gains so far
achieved through INEC institutional growth shall not be
discarded simply because we want a change.
Usman A. Sadiq, the secretary General of Nigeria Democratic
Alliance, through his sponsored publication of page 87, Thisday
newspaper, March 28, 2011, qualified Prof. Iwu as a bad
influence on the present INEC chairman. In his words, “Anyone
who has respect for reason and logic would know that Prof. Iwu
remains a bad spot on the image of this country….is it not
tragic that Iwu’s over 750 “special” key administration
officers, operations officers, computer operators and
programmers and some of his die-hard loyalists whom he recycled
among many states to conduct re-run elections are still where
Iwu posted them?” he went further to advise thus “Prof Jega must
appreciate the fact that Prof. Iwu is a wounded man. He is
laying booby traps for INEC so it would fail again…” The
palpable distaste for Prof Iwu, as was conveyed through his
write up is remarkable. Some Nigerians also belong to this
school of thought who feels that there was orchestrated ploy to
frustrate the processes thereby smearing the integrity of the
INEC boss. How this plays out is yet to be discovered.
c.
Incompetence:
the credentials of the Director of Logistics and his team
members are yet to be disclosed. Mr. Usman Farouk, the Director
of Logistics obviously needs to tell Nigerians his requisite
qualifications that qualify him to handle such sensitive
responsibility for over 150 million Nigerians. While we are not
yet privy to the cognate qualifications of the Director and his
lieutenants, it is important to analyze the failure in
categorical perspective. Time has passed when people with fair
knowledge will be placed in charge of sensitive activities that
require cutting edge expertise.
d.
Incompetent Supplier:
Suffice it to state that often suppliers have been found to be
considered for contracts without proven record or evidence of
enduring competence. A case of portfolio vendor is antithetical
to establishing qualified suppliers for competitiveness. In
supplier assessment, it is a preliminary factor to ensure that
the supplier possesses requisite competence in terms of skills,
knowledge, financial capacity and lead time conformance. The key
officers must be seen to possess verifiable competence data.
In
the traditional scheme, which was opposed by Christopher Martin,
people lobby for positions based on expected profitable
portfolio, not in any way, based on competence.
If
the team indeed is well trained in the scheme of supply chain
management, then this failure is a failure of the system that
qualified the Director and his team members.
The integrity of the Institute that certified their competences
needs to be investigated.
Appropriate sanctions should be administered to the failed
members for displaying incompetence thus smearing the good image
of their profession. But supposing the team lacks professional
training and qualifications? Then it means the failure is as a
result of putting a square peg in a round hole,
a retrogressive culture
of the ageing era.
But
we have severally witnessed situations whereby Bosses allocate
offices through which contracts are awarded to their cronies and
proxies. The only qualification is the person’s ability to award
contracts to recommended cronies and to do returns accordingly.
This is a flagrant disregard for the principles that enshrine
best practices.
The
bad sides of this include that the contract manager would repose
inexplicable confidence in the contractor based on the
recommendations of the sponsors and also as a result of his
pecuniary stake in the contract. There is no room for monitoring
and expediting since the contractor and the manager are all
encapsulated in the same ring of interest.
I
presume that it is this interest that could have induced
passivity that informed Prof Jega’s continuous reassuring of
Nigerians even up till the hour of voting, based on feedback
from his foot soldiers.
Now
the deed is done. Now the show of ineptitude has echoed beyond
the boundaries of our nation. The consideration of the strategic
role of effective logistics, to many, is so pivotal to the
organization of complex projects such as the national elections,
that many often take it for granted, believing that the actors
should understand the sensitivity and know what to do.
However, the level of
understanding of the sensitive nature of such activities is a
hybrid posture of cognate training, professional disposition,
ethical commitment to lead time management and avoidance of
pecuniary interest.
Reference to the incompetence of item c above, we may further
break down the bottom-line failure which led to this national
shame. It is important to note the provision of the PPA as
stated above thus “Part iv, article 16, subsection 1e states
thus “subject to any exemption allowed by this Act, all public
procurement shall be conducted: with the aim of achieving
value for money and
fitness for purpose”.
To achieve value for money in the procurement of materials and
services for the sake of the national elections demands that
every materials, equipment, personnel and information required
for the activity must have been put in place within the lead
time, most especially before the cut-off time. This may require
synchronous harmonization of activities noting Take-off (TO)
time and End of Activity (EA) for any activity schedule. It
further demands the disintegration of the scope of the project
to activity packages within which the time allotment will be
defined and idle time eliminated. It is the aggregate of the
activities’ times that determines the critical time for the
project. The manager of the logistics ought to have made a
checklist of activities, the TO and the EA, and the final
cut-off to synchronize with other activity packages in peer
formation.
The
obvious understanding of this increasing complex structure is
purely resident in the skills acquired from cognate trainings,
not resident in non-cognate experience.
e.
Non-Constitution of NCPP:
there have been several calls both from individuals and from
various bodies for the government to muster the political will
to constitute the National Council on Public Procurement (NCPP)
and it is yet to be constituted. Though the government has taken
a bold step by encouraging the setting up of non-governmental
advocacy group on the implementation of best practices of
procurement, through the training and inauguration of PRADIN,
the critical omission today remains the non-constitution of the
National Council on Public Procurement.
INEC
under Prof Jega recognized the need to partner with various
agencies and organizations to ensure effective collaboration.
With the Nigerian Bar Association, INEC strategically defined
partnership to help them in legal guide and structuring of
frameworks to avoid legal landmines. Recently, INEC announced
that they have perfected plans in partnership with the Nigerian
Bar Association, NBA, to prosecute offenders who did multiple
registrations. This is only possible because the judiciary is
properly constituted and the whole arms of the judiciary are
working accordingly. INEC also held talks with NIGCOMSAT to
provide IT platform for surveillance and general support through
collaboration. Also, the strategic partnership with security
formations such as the Police, the Air force, Civil defense,
etc, are worthy of note.
However, Procurement that has over 80% of the INEC budget could
not attract any form of strategic partnership with the
procurement institution manifesting in tripod formation, NCPP,
BPP and CIPSMN. The relationship of INEC with procurement
structure in Nigeria is only a relationship with the individual
arms which does not translate to the strategic bonding. Any
collaboration with procurement institution in Nigeria must be
brokered by the NCPP.
Today,
the supervisory collaborative role of the procurement
Institution, represented by the council, NCPP, is non-existent.
The entire developed economies of the world know this fact and
will always question why Nigeria insists on crippling her drive
to frugality. This is why Nigeria has remained among the top
corrupt nations ranking in the world. Corruption is not only the
act of carting away or misappropriating funds but the use of
unskilled and unprofessional individuals in sensitive matters,
thus corrupting decision and implementation processes.
FAILURE OF THE OLD ORDER:
To
Prof Jega, it looks like a dream. To him, such things are not
suppose to happen. To Nigerians, it is a letdown. To the
international communities, it is expected. This is not an act to
wish Nigeria evil but a sincere posture on the anticipated
outcome of a baseless structure. To the trained logisticians,
one cannot offer what he does not have. Professionals must
handle matters that demand expertise, both in terms of contract
management and the supplier choice. Expertise should never be
compromised.
Nigeria has been ruled at various levels by people who are
lettered but lack requisite knowledge to encourage and establish
institutional autonomies and vibrancy. President Jonathan
mentioned in his debate speech that certain essentials of our
living such as health, education, Agriculture, etc, are not
supposed to be political tools. Likewise the handling of
election processes. This is clear cut sincerity.
If Nigeria must move
forward, we must imbibe frugality in appointment, planning,
decision and implementation; draw a demarcation between
essential issues and issues for politicking and pecuniary gains.
We must let professionals handle affairs and eschew the
unwarranted patronage of mediocrity through quota system or raw
zoning. Zoning or quota system can only serve when levels of
competence have been certified acceptable.
We
have witnessed the fall of many public officers in Nigeria.
Chief Olabode George and his fellow travelers who were according
to
www.myownnigeria.com,
stated thus: “Bode George was convicted on October 26, 2009 by
Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Ikeja High Court on 35 out of
the 68-count charge bordering on contract splitting, inflation,
abuse of office and disobedience to lawful order. Justice
Oyewole sentenced all the six accused persons to two years each
on seven counts of abuse of office and another six months for 28
charges bordering on disobedience of lawful order. The judge
held that all the accused persons were guilty of splitting
numerous contracts as members of NPA board from 2001 to 2003.
According to the judge; there were incontrovertible evidences
that all the six accused persons intentionally and knowingly
condoned the splitting of contracts.
Presently, the EFCC has arraigned Mr. Raymond
Temisan Omatseye,
the former Managing Director of NIMASA for
a contract for the salvaging and refloating of ships washed
ashore near Takwa Bay in Lagos was reported to have been awarded
under Mr. Omatseye in the year 2010. The contract was signed for
$1.7million (about N225 million) between NIMASA and AMS-BP.
The Newspaper reported a lot of inconsistencies in the
contracting. This matter is however before a court of competent
jurisdiction.- The Nation
Newspaper,Wednesday, January 5, 2011 pages 27 & 28.
We
have witnessed some other high profile arrests, detention and
conviction in Nigeria, not to dwell on the reasons and whether
there is culpability, but the paradigm shift in the expected
standard of conduct by the actors, the accounting officers.
Nigerians have become more enlightened and concerned about how
common affairs are conducted.
It
could be shocking to Prof. Jega to realize that such oversight
could be perpetrated in his commission but it also awakens the
consciousness of Nigerians that public offices and
responsibilities that are vested with public interests cannot
tolerate any form of mediocrity in its implementation and
execution anymore. We must realize that any error due to
omission or incompetence is grave and would not absolve the
actor of liability.
Today, the mass revolt in the Arab world, where dictators held
sway is a clear indicator that nothing unpopular lasts forever.
It has awakened the consciousness of the once trampled upon
populace to demand their liberation. This is the same air that
has rippled into our public conduct. Anyone who is not compliant
with the current trend of cost effectiveness and efficiency is a
misfit in the conduct of public affairs no matter the size of
his/her resumes.
We
will therefore expect some individuals who are perhaps appointed
into one office or another to think twice, either resign due to
self appraisal or learn to do things right.
There is no hiding place for mediocrity in the affairs of our
national concern anymore. There is no gain saying that the old
brigade has lost touch with realities. The new trend must be
allowed to stand otherwise we will suffer the explosive outburst
of centrifugal pressure build in our system, which may be as
catastrophic as the uncontrolled disaster caused by the nuclear
stations affected by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.
The
case of Lauren Gbagbo would have been over if he had heeded the
call of wisdom. Also the insistence of Col. Muammar Ghadafi to
remain in power and view Libyans as rats that will be cleansed
from house to house is first degree arrogance. Power all over
the world has returned to the masses and no more in the hands of
the dictators. And that power is only resident in the clamor to
do things right, no more tolerating haphazard conduct.
Prof. Jega may not be alone in this demonstrable supervisory
incompetence. We appeal to heads of Ministries, Agencies and
Departments to heed this call of genuine appraisal because the
hurricane will surely come and it will spare no one. Let
professionals assume their roles and let them be allowed free
hand to function. The prison bars await more of leaders who
disregard frugal processes.
Regarding Prof. Jega’s predicament,
I call for concerted
efforts to help to sort this mess and ensure successful election
but his incompetent subjects must be seen to be sacrificed, to
purge the system of mediocrity. Heads must roll, in order to
sanitize the system and purge it of incompetent hands. This is
only a panacea to the sensitive stage of our national election
and the exercise to deepen our democratic experience.
No need to call for his
resignation at this critical time.
Let
Nigeria queue into a new trend of the world order by engaging
professionals to head her operations without unnecessary
interference through political leanings and tribalism. INEC’s
procurement failure is a reflection of poor knowledge of
expediting, which is a modern tool of providing goods,
materials, services and works at the right time, at the right
place, of the right quantity, right quality and at the right
price. No old brigade can fit in without knowledge upgrade.
Anthony Chibundu Akalugo is the President of Acdore Integrated
Services Limited, Lagos, A consultant in Supply Chain Management
and Logistics. He belongs to various professional Institutes. He
possesses various cognate academic qualifications among which
are Master Degree in Transport Management, Logistics (MTM,
Logistics).
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