N/Assembly to Get Bill on Public Procurement
From Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Budget Moni-toring and Price Intelligence Unit, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, yesterday gave indication that a bill that would guide public procurement with emphasis on due process is being processed and would soon arrive the two chambers of the National Assembly.
Ezekwesili, who disclosed this while presenting the keynote address at a national workshop on mastering procurement and contract management held in Abuja by the FCT's chapter of the Institute of Purchasing and Supply, said the bill would enable competent hands to operate in the public service procurement system.
"That is part of our efforts at institutionalising due process and by 2007, we would have e-procurement system that guarantees participation on the Internet," she said.
Giving a graphic detail of how the due process system works, Ezekwesili noted that in the approval of contracts, those below N1m are approved by the Permanent Secretary/Chief Executives of parastatals provided that due process is followed in the procurement of such goods and services.
For contracts over N1m but below N50m for ministries and extra-ministerial units, she explained that, "these are approved by Resident Due Process Team (RDPT) whose membership comprised the permanent secretary, director of finance and accounts, director of planning research and statistics, director of admin/finance and a representative of her office.
"In the case of parastatals for contracts above N700,000 but below N20m threshold, the membership of RDPT shall be the chairman of the board, the chief executive, director of planning research and statistics, director of finance and admin as well as a representative" of her office.
"For contracts above N50m, these shall be processed in accordance with FGN guidelines and approved by the ministerial tender board before forwarding" to her office "to obtain due process certification. When the certification is obtained, the project would be forwarded to Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval before an award can be announced," she said further.
Insisting that her office was not in any way responsible for the non-implementation of the 2004 Budget, Ezekwesili alerted the nation about a small parasitic rapacious elite group that has held the country spellbound who are bent on doing things the old way.
"The fundamental driving force of due process is procurement of goods and services in an open, transparent and competitive manner. This automatically implies that only the suitably qualified and commercially competitive firms and organisations will survive in such an environment," he said further.
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