Federal Government has been able to save about N530 billion as a result of enforcement of due process in the award of contracts, Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Emeka Eze has disclosed.
Speaking on Tuesday after meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo, Mr Eze said his Bureau is always ensuring thorough verification of contracts.
He said: “If there were no due process, this money would have been lost. We decide on what is fair to both the government and the contractors. If we did not do a proper check on all contracts and ensured that claims are properly verified, this money would have entered somebody’s pocket. So, we are talking about N530 billion saved through our interventions”.
The BPP boss therefore, urged all MDAs officials to be prudent in the management of public funds, saying “We must continue to tell Nigerians about the need to have character, there is no way one person no matter who he is can do nation building alone.
“If I send you on a job to say this contract has to be done now and you have a specification and somebody receiving salary has a responsibility to certify the job and the person does the wrong thing, then there is something wrong with us as a people.
“Therefore, in as much as we put up rules we expect that there are some people who have good training to see black and say it is black and see white and say it is white” .
Mr Eze assured that more stringent measures would be introduced from next year to check fraud in the award of contract. He said, “The funds that we have saved will now be free for other sectors of the economy such as education, more roads and provision of other infrastructures in the country.
“Without the work of BPP contractors would be ripping off this country”. On the 2013 budget, he had this to say, “First of all, the project must be appropriated for, which is already in the budget, in November last year Mr President ordered through a circular that the procurement process for 2013 be started and I have a copy of that circular ordering all the MDA’s to start the procurement process.
“The intention was that by May everything about 2013 will be concluded and luckily for us this year we don’t have too many new projects; most of them are ongoing projects that don’t require new procurement plan. As far as procurement is concerned we don’t have any issues.”
The Director General of BPP also spoke on the high cost of executing public contracts in Nigeria, attributing it to insecurity and challenge of power. “It is true that we have these challenges, but we must avoid looking at the negative sides always
“Contractors also think about power. The cost of power and the extra security at the site also form part of the cost that affects cost of doing jobs in Nigeria. Even our closest neighbor like Ghana does not have to worry about these. But thank God that we do not have to worry about them for too long, as government is making every effort to tackle power and insecurity.
“We have a market driven economy where you run a business that will require you to pay interest rate of 21 per cent or 18 per cent, and when you are doing the business are you going to make your business to recover the cost of money or not?
“Ordinary common sense will tell you that we are a developing economy and most of the inputs to our projects are not made in the country that is why Government is driving on local production process.
“If you are going to use construction equipment, do you make construction equipment in the country? The cost of car in London, US or elsewhere, are there the same? The answer is no.
“If you are selling car, you paid for the car in US and then you add the cost of shipment, clearance, cost of customs before you add your own profit as a business man by the time you add all those costs if you borrowed money,by the time you add all of them, will the cost still be the same as in America”? He queried.