The minister of state for finance, budget and national planning Clem Agba has described Nigeria’s procurement law as a drawback machinery that continues to make implementation of the national budget difficult, thereby denying Nigerians some needed developmental strides.
The budget and planning minister attributed the bureaucratic bottlenecks in the procurement process as a major reason why contractors inflate contract sums most times.
He said the experience is that, sometimes, the private sector people who do the business are not sure of when they will ever be paid and so tend to inflate the contract sums to meet up with the value and time of the payment.
A couple of changes have been made through the Finance Bill, especially with advanced payment which now puts the maximum amount for payment at 30 percent, a rate Agba said requires more.
Agba said the administration will soon approve the use of e-procurement to facilitate the procurement process. He said it has gone to advance stages.
Budget Implementation
He said the experience is that, sometimes, the private sector people who do the business are not sure of when they will ever be paid and so tend to inflate the contract sums to meet up with the value and time of the payment.
“Sometimes it’s not as a result of corruption that the value of items is high. Honestly, I think the procurement law needs to change,” he said.
A couple of changes have been made through the Finance Bill, especially with advanced payment which now puts the maximum amount for payment at 30 percent, a rate Agba said requires more.
“The way our process is designed, there is so much bureaucracy that it takes forever for the process to complete. It is akin to say I should run, and then you tie a rope on my leg to hold me down. Except and until it really changes, it will continue to affect our budget implementation,” Agba stated.
Speaking at a media briefing yesterday in Abuja, the minister said 24 states out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Nigeria had so far signed up for Open Government Partnership (OGP), a transparency mechanism for ensuring accountability in management of public funds.
He said the 24 states are making concrete commitments to develop the culture of transparency and accountability in governance processes while empowering citizens to participate effectively in governance processes. He, however, failed to mention the names of states that have refused to join the transparency programme.
Pointing to the achievements of his ministry between August 2019 when he was appointed and now, Prince Agba said the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning had been able to return the country to January to December budgetary cycle.
