Report Says “BPP Saved N26.86bn From Contracts Last Year”
The Bureau of Public Procurement has said it saved more than N26.86bn for the Federal Government in 2018 after revising inflated contract sums submitted by government contractors.
BPP said this in its 2018 annual report, which was obtained from the bureau by News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
The bureau reviews contracts awarded to contractors by Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government before issuing a certificate of ‘No Objection’, which allows the establishments to proceed with the projects.
The report explained that the BPP saved the amount in the course of undertaking the review of contracts.
According to the report, in 2018, 86 certificates of ‘No Objection’ were issued by the bureau to MDAs for contracts initially totalling N1.42tn but later reduced to N1.39tn after the review.
The report further revealed that the highest amount saved – N22.22bn – was recorded from the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
The money was saved from an initial request of N877.40bn.
Similarly, the total amount for contracts in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources was reduced from N278.91bn to N278.64bn, resulting in savings of about N271m.
The BPP equally saved N1.37bn on projects from the Ministry of Transportation from an initial request of N76.22bn, while N521m was saved from the Ministry of Water Resources out of N13.12bn.
In the Ministry of Finance, BPP saved N143.72m from a request of N3.54bn and about N33.65m was saved from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s initial request of N1.47bn.
About N494.96m was saved from various military contracts from an initial request totalling N123.82bn for the procurement of equipment.
Also, about N8.04m was saved from an initial request of N9.23bn for various contracts under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior.
The report added that BPP also saved N104m out of an initial request of N936.75m by Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria for the procurement of broadcast equipment for the 2019 general elections.
The report revealed that no saving was made from contracts under the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
The report indicted procurement officers in the MDAs who were accused of colluding with contractors to breach provisions of the BPP laws.
“The degree of the reported cases being prosecuted in the courts by the EFCC and the ICPC are clear testimony of the breaches in the MDAs.
“As observed in most cases, the procurement officers collude with the contractors and service providers to breach certain provisions of the BPP Act for their selfish reasons.
“These breaches range from faulty bid solicitation process, advance exposure of the bidding criteria to their preferred bidders and overlooking forged procurement statutory documents during technical and financial bid process.”
The report canvassed the establishment of special courts to handle public procurement corruption cases.
