ABUJA – President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday warned that from 2015 the Federal Government would not do business with any contractor not captured in the Bureau of Public Procurement’s (BPP) database.
Jonathan stated this in Abuja when he declared open the first National Conference on Public Procurement (NACOOP), with the theme, “Public Procurement: A tool for Good Governance“.
The President, who was represented by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, also said that any company debarred by the World Bank, Africa Development Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), would be automatically debarred from contracting processes in Nigeria.
“Any company debarred by any of our development partners such as the World Bank, African Development Bank and UNDP stands automatically debarred from contracting processes in Nigeria.
“To avoid frequent review of contract sums arising from insufficiency of designs I have recently directed that no contract should be awarded except when all necessary designs and environmental impact analyses have been completed and the project properly scoped.
“As a stakeholder, I recently granted a ‘No Objection Certificate’ to the BPP’s proposal to categorise and classify federal contractors and service providers into equal competences and capacity for bidding purposes.
“This action is intended to eliminate distortions in bidding costs that tend to create the impression that project costs in Nigeria are higher than in other countries.
“From the 2015 financial year, any company not registered and classified in that BPP database will not be allowed to do contract business of any sort with the Federal Government,“ he said.
Jonathan noted that reforms in the procurement process had begun yielding positive results in the economy.
“From 2009 to 2013 fiscal year, a total of N588 billion was saved from prior reviews by the BPP before the award of contracts by the Federal Executive Council,“ he stated.
According to him, Nigeria is setting up the first International Procurement Platform to facilitate an interface between a regulatory authority and procuring entities and service providers.
While reaffirming his commitment to further strengthen the BPP, Jonathan commended the 24 states that had so far passed procurement laws.
He, however, charged the remaining 12 states to urgently follow suite and urged all the States to give adequate protection to the regulatory agencies to effectively discharge their duties.
“It is important to reiterate that Nigeria runs one economy and therefore the need for one set of rules governing our contracting processes cannot be over emphasised.
“All states that are yet to pass the law are urged to pass them while those that have passed the law are urged to strengthen them in order to ensure delivery of services at best cost to the people,“ he added.
The Director-General of BPP, Dr Emeka Eze, said the conference was organised to mobilise all states of the federation to subscribe to one set of national procedures for public procurement.
The Public Procurement Act, establishing the BPP, was enacted in 2007.
The BPP is charged with the responsibility to among others provide legal and institutional framework and professional capacity for public procurement in Nigeria.
The 1st National Conference on Public Procurement is hosted by the National Public Procurement Forum (NPPF) and being implemented by the National Planning Committee and supported by the BPP. (NAN)
