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Procurement Reform is Ten, BPP announces Newsdiaryonline
Wed July 13,2011
The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) announced that the Fourth
National Procurement Forum meant to mark the tenth anniversary
of the Public Procurement reform in Nigeria will hold in ten
days just as new ministers are settling down to work.
Director-General of the Bureau, Engr. Emeka Ezeh said in Abuja
that the forum for which local and international stakeholders
have been invited will hold 25th and 26th
of July at the
Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja in what is slated to be one
highpoint of the public procurement reform in Nigeria.
The BPP boss recalled that the reform to be declared open by
President Goodluck Jonathan began shortly after the dawn of
democracy in 1999, through the commissioning of the World Bank
and some Nigerian private sector specialists to review the
country’s financial and procurement systems.
“The report recommended,
interalia, the systematisation of the nation’s public
expenditure system, dovetailing into the Due Process campaigns,
the Public Procurement Act, 2007 and eventually the Bureau of
Public Procurement (BPP) as the regulatory body”.
The director-general said the forum will be a platform to
examine the gains from the reform in the first decade of its
implementation, and to appreciate the challenges of a public
sector reform especially in a developing economy like Nigeria’s.
According to him,
the forum proceeds from where last year’s event stopped by
harping on the fact that best procurement practices are not only
key to the elimination of corruption, but a channel through
which good governance can be achieved.
The premises of this is that membership of the committee of
nations is now largely dependent on the extent to which national
governments conscientiously expend public funds to ensure
economic growth.
“The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) seeks to underscore this
determination by holding this forum for the mapping of the
essence and practices of good governance, through adherence to
ideal procedures in public procurement”.
He added “In this forum, we are going to look at how the culture
of good procurement practices and sanctions against breaches are
to be ingrained and implemented, while avenues for
circumventions are minimized. We are also to examine how to
enforce compliance in procurement regulations, in order to
strengthen its hold as a societal norm. As a consequence, we are
interested in ways government will deliver on its promises
through best procurement practices”.
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