Failure To Implement Procurement Act Fuels Poverty – Agada

Presidential Candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Architect Dr. Peter Agada, has blamed Nigeria’s endemic poverty and 27 years of underdevelopment on the failure to implement the Bureau of Public Procurement Act to establish the National Council on Public Procurement in line with Section 2 of the Establishment Act 2007.

In a statement issued on Monday, Dr. Agada said full implementation of the Act will allow government to interrogate 90 percent of all projects that have gulped Nigeria’s resources over the years, ensuring transparency and accountability.

He said the procurement system from 1999 to date has failed because four core objectives of the Act – economy and efficiency, value for money, transparency, and competition through level playing ground for all bidders – have been flagrantly neglected.

Agada disclosed that his administration’s strategy will divide projects into two, with one part handled by direct labour, stressing that savings from forensic auditing of projects alone can fund all projects under his Ward Intervention Initiative two or three times over.

“This idea is funding for Ward development projects; we intend to send funding of N40 million naira non-FAAC funds to every ward in Nigeria. With non-FAAC sources, there will be a 13-man ward steering committee we will set up per ward, with a ward development master plan and a bank account domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he said.

He explained that the Act, divided into 13 parts and 61 sections, establishes the Council chaired by the Minister of Finance with members including Attorney-General, SGF, Head of Service, Economic Adviser to the President, and representatives of purchasing, NBA, NACCIMA, engineers, civil society, media, with the DG of the Bureau as Secretary.

Citing Sections 5 and 6, Agada said the Bureau is mandated to formulate policies, certify federal procurement before award subject to thresholds, supervise implementation, monitor tender prices, publish major contracts in the procurement journal and maintain a national database of contractors.

He further cited Section 7, which provides that the Director-General shall be appointed by the President on recommendation of the Council after competitive selection, must have 15 years professional qualification, serve four years renewable once, and can only be removed on proven gross misconduct, financial impropriety or fraud.

Agada said the total money needed for 8,809 wards is about N32 trillion, with N25 trillion to be raised via investment and FDI in tranches, alongside land title valuation, reduced food importation, lean governance and fuel subsidy savings.

“We have those numbers. These are non-FAAC, and we are not going to tamper with the current FAAC and Tax structure, but we would do forensic checks of projects and drop the waste clauses and cost from them via the National Council on Procurement and our planned EPC system reforms. The Lagos/Calabar Coastal Road is a clear sign that the time has come for rolling in the National Council on Procurement,” he added.