Eze Onyekpere is a lawyer, fiscal governance expert and the lead director, Centre for Social Justice, he spoke to KAMAL TAYO OROPO on contracts awarded by the Federal Executive Council.So many contracts have been approved by FEC between 2010 and now, many are of the opinion that such contracts are just on paper. What is the reality on ground'Public procurement contributes in no small measure to the development of any nation and it is clear the Nigerian ruling class have subverted the procurement process through corruption. It is not very important to begin to count the number of projects and contracts awarded by FEC. The political will to implement the capital component of the budget is lacking and the civil service also uses its inefficiency to frustrate the budget implementation process. The Public Procurement Act of 2007, which should guide procurements has been more honoured in the breach.What would you identify as most pungent reasons behind inability to execute some of these contracts'First the budget is prepared and presented late to the National Assembly. Averagely in the last ten years, the budget is not approved until the end of the first quarter. So implementation starts late and the tardiness in public service procedures compounds the matter. In many instances, proper procurement plans are not prepared, sums approved in the budget are not released on time, technical and engineering designs are not completed before projects are inserted into the budget; community issues such as land acquisition and compensation to those whose lands will be acquired only come to the fore six months into the budget implementation year. Even, the process for selecting projects going into the budget is not based on any empirical formula. This leads to white elephant projects that do not reflect the needs of the people. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework which should have provided a guide on capital budget preparation and implementation has also been relegated by the authorities.There are regulatory or supervisory agencies, to what extent arethey performing their roles'The Bureau of Public Procurement is supposed to be the regulatory agency for federal public procurements. Its work is to be supervised by a council which the government has failed and refused to set up. The BPP is doing a lot of sensitization and capacity building in MDAs to remedy the situation but it appears that the ailment has refused to respond to the remedies proffered by the doctor. The National Assembly has the constitutional mandate to exercise oversight over public procurements but it appears that it lacks the capacity and has not summoned the political will to call the authorities to order because most of those involved in this rape of the system (top political office holders and contractors) likely come from the ruling party.How could the situation be remedied in favour of good governance'The challenge is for Nigerians to show more interest in public procurement, ask questions, litigate issues, demonstrate and rally on the streets and generally take steps to take back their country from those who have demonstrated their intention to impoverish the majority. It is clear that what is happening cannot be cured by a system of laws in the books which will be left to gather dust; even when the lawmakers, the judiciary and the executive are in conspiracy to ruin the nation. And the best way to ruin a nation is through fiscal mal-governance.
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