CERLSI URGES FG TO CONSTITUTE GOVERNING BOARD FOR BUREAU OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, BPP
By Joy Okosieme
The Civil Empowerment & Rule of Law Support Initiative, CERLSI, has asked the Federal government of Nigeria to constitute a governing board/council for the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, to add fillip to the anti-corruption agenda of the Buhari government.
Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku, CERLSI deputy executive director said that investigations have revealed that 90% of corruption in public institutions like the NDDC usually begin at the specification stage in procurement.
‘It is indeed a shame that the Federal government under President Buhari continues to tow the path of other corrupt governments by not constituting a governing board for the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP. Under this administration, corruption is rifer than rife, even under public institutions like the EFCC supposedly fighting corruption. We believe this is because a board has not been constituted to check abuses in the procurement process. Therefore, constituting a governing board for the BPP helps to entrench transparency and accountability, reduces abuses in the procurement process and establishes a template for public procurement processes across the states in Nigeria’, Mr Etemiku said.
The BPP was set up in 2007. Other laws established to check corruption in Nigeria include the Banks and other Financial Institutions Act (1991), The Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts), and Financial Malpractice in Banks Act ( 1994), The Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, (1995), The Money Laundering (Prohibition Act(1995), the EFCC Act (2004), and the Code of Conduct Act (2003).
‘What is sad to note is that all these so-called ‘Sunshine laws’ in Nigeria have governing boards/councils, but the BPP is the only anti-corruption law without a governing board. And this is why we call on the Muhammadu Buhari administration to do the deedful and needful, and radically depart from the unusual norm of awarding contracts without a governing board for a sensitive public institution like the BPP’, Mr Etemiku stated.
