Nigeria has lost over N800 billion in the last
decade through inflated contracts, Mrs Oby Ezelwesili, head, Budget
Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU), has said.
Ezekwesili, who is also Senior Special
Assistant (SSA) to Mr President, disclosed this
in Abuja Friday at an interactive forum with government contractors.
She lamented that the nation�s ruling elites
had in the last 40 years failed to utilise over 280 billion dollars of oil
proceeds to built a developed economy.
Ezekwesili pointed out that the ruling elites
failed because they replaced vision, policy and strategy which should have
been the main thrust with transactions.
�This explains why over this period virtually
everybody in Nigeria became a contractor and contract award and processes
equally became a major source of corruption in the country.
�The process of award of such contracts was
anything but open, transparent and competitive,�� she said, adding that this
situation led to the collapse of basic rules and standards guiding public
procurement.
The SSA spoke of the existence of �an organised
conspiracy�� between local and foreign contractors, aimed at undermining the
opportunities Nigeria
had in the last 40 years.
She explained that the introduction
of �the Due Process� by the administration of
president Olusegun Obasanjo was a radical response to revive public
procurement system to conform with laid down rules and procedures.
Ezekwesili said the forum was convened to
inform, educate and enlighten contractors on the �ABC� of the procurement
policy.
�This forum also provides unique opportunity
for us at the unit to interact with you directly especially on those issues
that might have arisen in our procurement system since the introduction of
the policy,�� she said
In his remarks, minister of works Adeseye
Ogunlewe urged government contractors to cross check the volume of funds in
the appropriation Act before accepting to execute contracts.
�Be vigilant, the period of carelessness is
over as we now have proper procedure of doing things,�� he warned.
Ogunlewe, who was chairman of the occasion,
advised BMPIU to critically look into issues of advance payments of
contractors.
This, according to him, has created opportunities for
fraudulent contractors to defraud the federal government.
