TheCable

Babachir Lawal, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), says President Muhammadu Buhari is now employing technology to fight corruption.

Speaking on Monday at the launch of the federal government’s e-procurement initiative, Babachir, who was represented by Mohammed Bukka, permanent secretary to the office of the SGF, said the initiative was “particularly unique in the sense that  government was considering the critical role of technology in sanitising the business environment by limiting human interface that is inclined to corruption”.

He said the e-procurement was not just a software application but a tool to reform public procurement, and must be deployed alongside strong awareness, capacity building programmes, technological infrastructure development, established standards and sustainable e-procurement applications.

Babachir said by ‎the end of September 2016, government expects that the implementation of the e-procurement would have commenced in the pilot Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to facilitate the speedy implementation of the 2017 fiscal year.

“Based on this premise, we expect 2017 budget to be less contentious, ‎to the extent that all the procurement that go into the appropriation bill would have passed the tests of transparency, accountability and efficiency,” he said.

“Breaking down the physical ‎barriers of space and time, e-procurement allows more transparent and efficient information flow as well as improved access to information and service.”

The e-procurement initiative targets to save N48.4 billion from six pilot ministries in the N6 trillion 2016 budget.

The ministries are‎ education, health, agriculture, transport, water resources and the ministry of power, works and housing with a total of N1.468 trillion.

The N48.4billion savings would represent approximately five per cent recurrent and three per cent capital expenditures.

President Muhammadu Buhari ‎is planning to send an ‘Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill’ to the national assembly. The bill will, amongst other things, seek to shorten procurement processes and orders in favour of local contractors and suppliers in the country.

Ahmed Abdu, acting director-general of the Bureau for Public Procurement, said the new system will ensure  that procurement entities request for certificate of no objection through electronic form and receive approval through the same channel, totally eliminating human interface.

“The e-procurement will also enhance the operations of the Efficiency Unit of Federal Ministry of Finance, which is to review the expenditure profile and pattern of the federal government and work with the MDAs to introduce more efficient processes and procedures that will ensure that the  government’s revenues are deployed in an efficient manner that translates to value for money and savings to government” he said.