TheCable

The federal government has inaugurated a procurement integrity and transparency training initiative to curb corruption in contract processes.

The initiative, launched on Thursday in Abuja, is a partnership between the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), and the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences (ICPC).

Speaking at the event, Adesoji Adesugba, deputy president of the chamber, said the initiative stems from past corrupt practices within procurement and related business dealings involving vendors and suppliers at different levels.

“Given the prevalent unethical practices in procurement processes, this event aims to lay the groundwork for nationwide awareness campaigns on integrity and transparency,” Adesugba said.

“It also marks the prelude to a comprehensive training programme scheduled for ICPC vendors later this month, generously supported by the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).”

Adesugba said the chamber currently operates four specialised centres alongside the secretariat.

He said the centres are the Abuja Trade Centre, Business Entrepreneurial Skills and Technology (BEST) Centre, Policy Advocacy Centre (PAC) and Dispute Resolution Centre (DRC).

Also, Victoria Akai, director-general of ACCI, said the programme aims to sensitise the public and private sector on the importance of ethical procurement and business practices.

According to Akai, it would also encourage issues around open government, standards procurement practices and institutional strengthening.

“We intend to achieve compliance in public institutions so that they can see the importance of complying with the standards of procurement practices that have been established,” she said.

“And to the private sector also to comply with the ethics and accountability for us to run a stronger institution in the country.”

On his part, Shintema Binga, head of procurement at ICPC, said the programme is important to all procurement vendors.

“We feel there is some lack of integrity that is displayed sometimes in the procurement process, so our partners at ACCI and CIPE decided to sensitise them to wake up their business integrity to come up to date,” he said

Meanwhile, Lola Adekanye, country director of CIPE, described the enterprise as a democratic organisation that supports a free market or competitive market in democratic institutions around the world.

“We are here for business integrity, and business ethics are fundamental to a competitive market, to democracy anywhere in the world, and today we are inaugurating a good collaboration between the ICPC and ACCI,” she said.

“In the past, we thought that corruption was an issue and that the public sector had all the responsibility to reduce it, but today, we know that business has a role in curbing corruption.

“We are pushing to strengthen the values that make us resilient against corruption. There is no society without corruption, and many factors make corruption increase or reduce.”

Adekanye said Nigeria lacks strong accountability mechanisms and adherence to ethics principles — which is the area they  trying to strengthen.