DG, BPSR, Dr Joe Abah says ‘Inflated, Fictitious Projects Fueling Corruption In Nigeria’

Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr Joe Abah

THE Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr Joe Abah, has traced the massive fraud ravaging the Nigerian society and economy to inflated, bogus, fictitious, undelivered and under-delivered government projects.

   However, these could be stemmed through better public procurement practice, which he noted is key to the delivery of government’s capital projects, adding that economy efficiency, effectiveness and transparency would also mean that every naira would go further towards the provision of public goods for the people.

   Speaking yesterday in Abuja during a welcome address at the lunchtime reform seminar on “The Common Challenges of Public Procurement in Nigeria,” Abah said the bureau has since 2007 saved Nigeria over “N528 billion that would have been lost to inefficient contract processes, contract inflation and fraud.”

   He explained that the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) was put in place through the BPP Act of 2007 to verify and properly scrutinize all government contracts before being awarded to the best, cheapest and competent contractors.

   Also speaking on the topic, the BPP Director-General, Emeka Eze, listed the challenges public procurement in Nigeria to include direct contract awards without advertisements, undefined selection and award criteria, wrong procurement notices/advertisements and excessively short deadlines for submission of tenders. 

   Others are the use of discriminatory/subjective criteria in bid examination, guided evaluation of tender and amendment of essential elements of the contract after award. He faulted advertisement inadequacies in the contents of information given to prospective contractors and consultants and improper needs assessment of projects.

   According to him, strict adherence to the Public Procurement Act of 2007 and effective use of procurement manual and regulations will go a long way in eliminating fraud in the system.

The Guardian