TheCable

The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) says there is an urgent need to revise Nigeria’s procurement documents to address inadequacies observed by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

The BPP is the regulatory authority responsible for the monitoring and oversight of public procurements.

Mamman Ahmadu, BPP director-general, while speaking in Lagos on Tuesday at a stakeholders’ workshop on the review of draft for the standard bidding and contracting documents said the existing documents were developed in 2009 and last updated in 2011.

“Experiences in using these documents have shown their inadequacies to cater for large, complex and dynamic procurement of goods, services and administration of contracts arising from their use,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“It is in that light that the BPP, as the regulator of public procurement, decided to respond to the identified challenges.

“The goal is to bring them up to date with the current international best practices while ensuring domestic interests are well taken care of, for the purpose of national development.”

Ahmadu, who was represented at the event by Babatunde Kuye, director, energy infrastructure, BPP, said that the ultimate objective was to ensure transparency and promote competition.

Other objectives, he said, included cost effectiveness and professionalism in the public sector procurement system and disposal of public assets in line with global practices.

The BPP boss said that a lot had happened in the procurement space, both locally and internationally, since the development of the existing bidding documents, hence the urgent need for review.

He said that the process of review of the existing procurement documents and development of new ones was activated with the engagement of a consultant with global experience to help drive the process.

“The draft procurement documents have been produced and shared with relevant stakeholders,” he said.

“The aim is to create an opportunity to harvest valuable input from all public procurement stakeholders.

“We expect the stakeholders to discuss the key clauses of interests, synergise various perspectives and incorporate them in the documents being reviewed and developed.”

He urged the stakeholders to take advantage of the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing procurement reform which is aimed at ensuring national development driven by public procurement.

On his part, Ishaq Yahaya, director, monitoring and compliance, BPP, said that reviewing the nation’s procurement documents had become necessary in view of emerging challenges.

He said the workshop would show what had been developed with a view to stimulate discussions among the stakeholders.

“We shall expect stakeholders to point out areas we have not covered and areas we shouldn’t have inserted,” Yahaya said.