Poor Procurement Law Hindering Budget Implementation — Fed Govt

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.

“I don’t think the law, as it is, is best for our country. And it’s one of the things that drags our implementation of the national budget. And the law clearly shows that we don’t trust ourselves,” Agba said when he was responding to questions on the legislative imperative of the procurement process in Nigeria at a media briefing in Abuja.

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.

“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.

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.

Speaking at the event which took place yesterday, 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.

Under his supervision, a modelling lab/economic intelligence desk was established in the ministry to undertake policy forecasts/analyses and track macroeconomic indicators.

The ministry also developed a citizens-based monitoring web application known as the Eyemark to enhance participation of citizens and CSOs in tracking progress and performance of federal government’s interventions.