Governments all over the world use public procurement policy and implementation mechanisms to address a number of issues including budget implementation, service delivery, social, economic, environmental, human rights and developmental concerns. It can be stated as a basic aphorism that the level of economic growth and development in any society is directly related and proportional to the maturity of its procurement policy and how the policy responds to the challenges facing the society. Thus, if Nigerias procurement policies had responded positively to the challenges of underdevelopment, the country would have been able to develop its human capital, address infrastructure deficits and generate economic growth at the level required under its Vision 2020 strategy. Essentially, Nigeria would have been on target to meet the Millennium Development Goals and the promises of the constitutional Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.It is a notorious fact that no government official will dip his hands into public funds and brazenly convert the same for private use. The official must find a subtle way of stealing money and the procurement process and function provides the best platform to steal public funds. Nigerians were therefore happy when the late President Umaru Yaradua assented to the Public Procurement Bill on June 4, 2007. By that act, the bill became an Act of the National Assembly with clearly stated objectives and promises of reforming the way government renders services to the people. The long title to the Act described it as an Act to Establish the National Council on Public Procurement and the Bureau of Public Procurement as the regulatory authorities responsible for the monitoring and oversight of public procurement, harmonising existing government policies and practices by regulating, setting standards and developing the legal framework and professional capacity for public procurement in Nigeria and for related matters. The Council is the policy arm for procurement regulation while the Bureau is the technical and operating arm with far-reaching objectives and powers which are to be exercised subject to the approval of the Council. The Bureau, on its own, serves as the secretariat of the Council.The Act promised a couple of things most notably, transparency, competiveness, cost effectiveness, professionalism and value for money in public procurement. Value for money comes with its three components of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Economy involves thrift and good housekeeping, acquiring resources in appropriate quantity and quality at the lowest cost. Efficiency ensures that maximum useful output is gained from the resources devoted to each activity or that only a minimum level of resources are devoted to achieving a given level of output. Money should not be spent simply because it was budgeted. Effectiveness ensures that output from any given activity or the impact of the activity or services is having the desired results. Essentially, governments spending should be seen to be achieving the stated sectoral objectives in education, housing, health, etc.Four years down the line, what is the score card' Are we on the way to meeting the lofty goals and objectives of the Act' First, a Bureau of Public Procurement has been established and it appears to be doing some commendable work so far. It has formulated detailed policies and guidelines, prepared standard bidding documents, certified federal procurement prior to award of contracts, undertaken massive capacity building and sensitisation sessions for ministries, departments and agencies of government, contractors, civil society organisations, etc. It also publishes a procurement journal, supervises the implementation of thresholds, and keeps a national database of standard prices and performed procurement audits. Indeed, it has tried to justify its expenditure of taxpayers funds judging from its official mandate.But there is a snag somewhere along the line. The Bureau is supposed to be the secretariat of the Council and the Act specifically states that it should formulate the general policies and guidelines relating to public procurement for the approval of Council and subject to thresholds as may be set by the Council; certify federal procurement prior to the award of contract. If there is no Council, how did the Bureau arrive at the general policies, guidelines and the thresholds' The thresholds were contained in a March 2009 circular emanating from the office of the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed. With the greatest respect, the office of the SGF is an office unknown to the Nigerian procurement law and jurisprudence and any such thresholds emanating from an unknown authority cannot stand the test of legalism. The Council is even composed of mainly the appointees of the President namely, the Minister of Finance as chairperson, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Head of Service of the Federation, the Economic Adviser to the President; six part-time members to represent the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria, Nigeria Bar Association, National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Nigeria Society of Engineers, Civil Society, the Media and the Director-General of the Bureau who shall be the secretary of the Council. Why then is the President failing, refusing and neglecting to appoint the Council four years after the enactment of the Act' Who is afraid of the Council' The absence of the Council is a deliberate presidential inaction from the days of the late Yaradua up to the present day. So many stakeholders have reminded the President to establish the Council to no avail.Interestingly, we still have a situation where the Federal Executive Council still approves contracts contrary to the clear wordings of the Act. Section 17 of the Act is specific that the approving authority in the case of a government agency, parastatal or corporation is a Parastatal Tenders Board while the Ministerial Tenders Board approves for ministries or extra-ministerial entities. Nigerias Country Procurement Assessment Report, June 2000, which pre-dated the Act had warned against this when it stated that, "Once a law on public procurement has been enacted and regulations, manuals and standard bidding documents issued, carrying out public procurement including contract awards will clearly be an administrative function, the mechanics of which should be disengaged from the executive. Currently, high level politicians such as governors, ministers and commissioners are operationally involved in the procurement process. However, under the reformed procurement system, high level politicians should maintain their overall managerial oversight responsibilities while leaving administrative and operational matters (including procurement) to the civil servants." The procurement system is still bedevilled by poor results. Capital budgets are hardly implemented beyond official claims of between 50 per cent and 60 per cent at the end of every financial year. Corruption, lack of value for money, political interference and abandoned projects, still challenge public procurement formulation and implementation. We still have a situation where, according to the Budget Office of the Federation, projects are initiated without feasibility studies, engineering designs or appropriate costing; delays in payments to contractors even when releases have been made to the MDAs, overloading of specific contractors with more contracts than they can handle and lack of ownership of projects by local communities.Solving these challenges is not rocket science. The President should lead the way by the immediate composition and inauguration of the Council and insist on the implementation of all sections of the Act. If there are provisions of the Act that he is uncomfortable with, he should seek an amendment from the legislature. The sanctions mechanism in the Act should be energised and other supporting frameworks such as early budget preparation and passage should support the realisation of national procurement goals.Onyekpere is Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Abuja. He can be reached on censoj@gmail.com or 08127235995
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