What's Going on at the Bureau of Public Procurement?

Fellow Nigerians, I need clarification on what goes on at the Bureau of Public Procurement. The Procurement Act was signed to law in 2007 and I am yet to see seriousness in carrying out their function in helping bridge the unfair gap between the public and private sector.

For those who don’t know what I am talking about, you are forgiven. It’s not your fault at all. I suspect the Bureau does not exist. Actually, it does. Well, they have an office somewhere in the villa. I paid them a visit a few weeks ago and totally disappointed was I.

My impression of the bureau is the impression I have of the power wielded by the CBN in the financial sector. The BPP is meant to act as the law enforcer for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in ensuring fairness in public procurement. I suspect an average employee of the agency is yet to read the Act or else, why are they sleeping. This is just like NAFDAC acts as an enforcement agency in food and drugs control. I am sure NAFDAC needs no introduction. You see what I mean?

My visit was anything but memorable. It seemed like an agency set up for no reason and no purpose. There seemed to be nothing going on. There was no external visitor during my 1 hour visit to the agency. Well, there was one visitor who happened to be in search of a job. I wish him all the best. I wish him and millions of Nigerian youths well.

I was unable to extract any meaningful information from the agency to assist me in my research gathering exercise. I was told I had to get explicit permission from the DG. I have not heard from the agency since my visit on the 19th of September 2008. At least someone in the agency must be very busy. As a matter of fact, I had to run out and type a formal letter to the DG to make a formal request to gain access to information I really think has no impact on national security. If an agency that claims to promote transparency in public procurement does not seem to have any level of transparency in-house, my fellow Nigerians, we need to worry. Maybe this is due to the delay in signing the freedom of information (FoI) bill. That’s a fair excuse. I have no legal right to PUBLIC procurement enquiries. The government is sure taking us on a long ride.

The primary argument for setting up the BPP is to help reduce the high level of corruption due to the obvious fact that corruption in the public sector is due to the lack of transparency in award of contracts. The BPP should be an agency on fire at this trying moment in our country’s history. As a matter of fact, the fear of the BPP should be the beginning of wisdom as far as public sector procurement is concerned. Just as the fear of the EFCC is (was) the beginning of wisdom for corrupt public officials. Right now, the fear of court injunction seems to be the beginning of wisdom for the EFCC. How the tables have turned.

The BPP has a common objective with the EFFC as both agencies have to fight corruption in the public sector. This is not very obvious and I suspect this might not be unconnected to the choice of agency names. Who would have thought the BPP is a corruption fighting agency. The main difference I observe is that while the EFCC fights corruption after the facts, the BPP prevents those opportunities from happening in the first place. In other words, the BPP if functioning properly should reduce the work load of the EFCC.

Based on this thinking, I expected to see a BPP office buzzing with activity and computers analyzing procurement records for anomalies, monitoring purchase trends across MDAs, performing correlation measures between public expenditure saving and job creation opportunities for upcoming SMEs. Jack Baur would have been envious. I envisioned an organisation with hundreds of procurement specialists grinded in the art of procurement processes preparing reports and recommendations based on findings gathered from procurement audit exercises at their designated MDAs. I envisioned publicly available reports on progress made by MDAs and possibly punitive actions recommended for defaulting agencies. The last vision would surely be a dream come true. I pictured a leadership who are at least as visible as leadership found in NAFDAC and the EFCC. Sadly, this is not the reality.

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe that’s not what the Bureau is all about. Or maybe there is a deliberate attempt not to do their duties. If I am not wrong, what is wrong? I am sure the president would be happy if you take your rightful role in moving Nigeria from where we are now to where we should be. The problem is that we do not know where we want to be. Our various visions are not even clear to us. For starters, we have like five different visions. Vision 2010, millennium goal, Vision 2020 and NEEDs. Is this an attempt to confuse us or is it a conscious attempt to build up excuses why the visions all fell apart when we look back? We would see our president in 12 years time making a speech telling us “Fellow Nigerians, the visions were too many, hence too fuzzy”. We are very sorry (Nigerians are a forgiving people). Let’s thank God we are still here to try again. (Our leaders know we love God and believe all our inefficiencies are always translated to all sorts of spiritual explanations)”.

Is that it? We are forgetful, extremely gullible and overly spiritual. We would soon hear of vision 2050 (please be patient). Or is it vision 20XX (we don’t even know when) or even vision XXXX (not in any life time). Please, the last option was not a serious suggestion.

The BPP reports to the ministry of finance, so you have strong support base. I am sure the minister would be glad to implement your ideas if recommended. I have been privileged to work within his organisation(s) and he is a confirmed progressive. He also worked in the CBN so I am sure your role as a supervisory body would be easy to put to practice.

I read some existing articles on setting up of the Bureau of Public Procurement in Nigeria and I conclude that: “Nigerians do forget”. Let me extract some for your edification. Note that some of these are reports and whatever recommendations were made are in the Procurement Act itself.

A report by Mr. S.A. Ekpenkhio, permanent secretary, political affairs, the presidency (16th January, 2003)
· “All the elements that enhance efficiency reliability and continuity of the system have been tampered with resulting in major and severe set backs for the conduct of Government business… … …” Furthermore, the President observed and emphasized that transparency in Government procedures was necessary to usher in “a great and dynamic economy” to ensure “a just and egalitarian society”.

· Government accepted the CPAR (Country Procurement Assessment Report) in its entirety with the exception of the Registration of Contractors and the involvement of Political Office holders such as Ministers/ Commissioners in the award of contracts in excess of fifty million Naira which the report was against. (I must confess, I am not sure what that means)

· the streamlining of Tender Boards and strengthening their functional authority, including powers to award contracts; (great)

· Permanent Secretary to approve contracts of works, services and purchases up to N1,000,000.00 (approximately U.S. $7,937.66); (not a lot of money and seems to counter the previous point)

· A delegation of the Steering Committee undertook a two-week study tour of the United States of America under the sponsorship of the US Department of Commerce. The delegation visited specialized procurement institutions and held discussions on management of procurement in a multi-sectoral and deregulated economy. (I am sure it was a worthy experience. Have their recommendations been fully implemented?)


· The bill will provide adequate legal institutional framework and financial mechanism to achieve the laudable goals of government in its efforts to enthrone transparency, accountability and equal access to public sector procurement. (How does the legal framework fit with court injunctions? What are court injunctions anyway?)

· When established, the BPP will act as an oversight body independent of the Tender Boards; ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of procurement functions across the public sector. (this is a very big role indeed. So why are you so quiet?)

· Monitoring of the procurement environment; (I am not sure the BPP is clear on how to approach this function)

· For full report, please visit http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/gproc_e/wkshop_tanz_jan03/nigeriacase3_e.doc

Mr. S.A. Ekpenkhio’s report is commendable and I can sincerely feel his vision. So what is wrong?

Now, these are excerpts from a presentation by Professor Kunle Ade Wahab Special Adviser to The President And Head, Budget Monitoring & Price Intelligence Unit (September 28, 2006)
· A survey conducted by the Obasanjo administration shortly on assumption of office revealed that before May 29, 1999, Nigeria must have lost an average of forty billion naira annually through all kinds of manipulation of the procedure for award and execution of public contracts.(are we saving 40 Billion naira now? Remember the power project? If the figures quoted were correct, then we are worse than we were in 1999. About 600 Billion Naira from the power project alone I think and that is being conservative)
· These manipulations were open in the form of inflation of contract costs, use of contract system to divert public funds to private pockets, award of contracts for ghost projects …. (Do people read these documents? I forgot. Nigerians forget quickly. Hope you haven’t forgotten the power project? I wonder how involved the BPP was in the procurement of N80 billion naira worth of rice. I assume that is part of your procurement monitoring process.)
· Objectives
o To determine whether or not Due Process has been observed in the Procurement of services & contracts (Hmmm. Remember the power project?)
o To introduce more honesty, accountability & transparency into the Procurement Process (Okay. That is straightforward)
· In order to make this process clear and simple to all spending agencies of the Federal Government, we designed and published a check-list of processes and documents required for reviews and certification of any public contract to be paid for with public funds. (I am still looking for the checklist. It is probably online somewhere. I just have not found it. Oh, I forgot. The FoI bill is pending. Now, I get it.)
· Contracts above fifty million are to be submitted to the BMPIU by the MDAs for what we call full review and certification before it is sent to the Federal Executive Council for approval. (They must have missed that power project.)
· We enjoy strong and stoic support from Mr. President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo without whom we can hardly achieve much. This is because no capital project at the federal level can be paid for without a due process certificate issued by the BMPIU. (600 vs 40 Billion. We surely hardly achieved much)
· The Challenge before the Unit in the implementation of this policy at the moment is how to spread the message of the reforms to all states and local governments in Nigeria. (I agree. But, why is it a challenge?)
· The concern remain that unless these tiers of government emulate and adopt the reforms, the expected impact on the economy and the standard of living of an average Nigeria would remain difficult to achieve. This is because while the Federal Government gets 48% from the share of the resources, the states and local governments get 52%. (It’s not that. I think it is those court injunctions. Sorry, court protections)
· ….. I therefore use this forum to plead with the State Governors to give the reforms the needed political will to take off in their states. (You have to beg? These fellows are making your job difficult. How do we proceed?)
· … It also provides for the creation of a Public Procurement Bureau to regulate public procurement in Nigeria. The House of Representatives is almost set to pass the Bill into law any moment from now the Bill comes up for its third reading (Yippee. We made some progress. I have been there.)
· There is more to see. Please, visit

By now, I hope you all have an idea what the public procurement Act and the BPP were created to achieve. The excerpts above exhibit sincerity of purpose by the above citizens who I am certain meant well. At a point, the professor had to plead with our Governors. I feel his pains. Only if he had known the power project would be a charade, he won’t have opened up his heart.

The vision for the country if the BPP does its job right is that of a master piece portrait. The good news is that we are the artists and have the opportunity to paint the picture as best as we can. The bad news is that we have not bought the canvas yet. If we have, we probably procured the wrong type or the wrong size. BPP, please take note. We still have time to correct these mistakes. Let’s not wait for 20XX to start dishing explanations.

I implore you all to show concern for events happening in our country. Try and read the Procurement Act 2007, the NEEDS document and the many visions and let us try and make sense of them. There might be a reason for these multiple visions. We have to find out ourselves. I was probably wrong on the multi-vision approach as I am yet to read it (them). I don’t even have an idea which agency owns the management/ monitoring of the vision. We need to find out more. We owe ourselves that responsibility.

We need to leave something worthy for our children and grand children. And, I don’t mean money because that is all we worry about. I mean wealth (Yes, there is a difference). I mean a quality of life (QoL) worthy of emulation (we are currently ranked below the 100th position worldwide on this measure). I refer to memories that would make us smile in our graves. Let’s save this country before we run out of time. We seem to forget we would all die someday and these monies are not going to the cemetery with us (unless you are contesting for the NDDC leadership position). I hate to be the one to tell you this but I would die someday, you would too. So, kini big deal?