Date Published: 10/09/09

Bayelsa Public Procurement Act under fire

Timipre Sylva

THE Public Procurement Act of Bayelsa State, one of the key oil and gas-producing states in the Niger Delta, has come under fire with civil society calling for its immediate amendment.

Already, the Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group(NDEBUMOG), which is leading the assault on the law says they reject the powers conferred on the Governor of the state not to subject security items and security procurement to the jurisdiction of the Act.

Executive Director of the group, George-Hill Anthony, claimed in a statement in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Friday that Section 5 of the Act also makes the Commissioner of Special Duty, the Head of the Bayelsa State Central Procurement Board.

''This is like putting the wheel of intimidation against an effective procurement regime in the state'', the group said.

According to them, ''the threshold of N50 million to N300 million given the Central Procurement Board should be reviewed downward to within N20 million to a N150 million''.

Continuing, they said subjecting a contract threshold of between N300 million to N500 million to the singular approval of the state governor alone is a corridor created for possible abuses.

''NDEBUMOG disagree with provisions in the Act which provided that, only contract threshold of above N500 million can go to the State Executive Council for approval. This threshold ceiling should be reasonably reduced through an amendment aimed at checkmating procurement rascality''.

Bayelsa Governor, Timipre Sylva, on June 17, 2009, signed the state Public Procurement Act into law. The Act is, however, expected to regulate all procurement regime and practices of the state government.

Having taken a quick look at this law which has eleven chapters and 67 sections as was passed by the state House of Assembly and its subsequent accent by the governor, NDEBUMOG Regional Accountability Centre has also made the following submissions about the law:

* There was no popular participation of stakeholders in Bayelsa state to seek popular input into this Law, nor was there a well advertised Public Hearing about this Law in line with Parliamentary best practices across the world.

* We demand from all the states across the zone having not yet passed a Procurement and Fiscal Responsibility Bill to do so without further delay. However, such must be done through wider stakeholders’ participation and consultation and not through kitchen legislation.

* We recognize the provision for the inclusion of eight civil society representative(s) and professional bodies in the Bayelsa Council on Public Procurement embedded in Section 1 of the Act. Such composition recognizes the following (CSOs) and professional clusters:; chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria, Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Union of Journalist, the civil society, women group, Nigerian Society of Engineers, and Bayelsa State Council of NULGE.

* We frown at Section 7 (b) of the Act being an interpretative clause on who is qualified to become a Director- General of the Bureau, which as stated, must be someone who is qualified to contest an election into ‘ a State House of Assembly’. This provision has weakened the expected expertise of who heads the Bureau and should be considered for an amendment. Pro-poor legislations should not be an instrument of political foot balling.

* That Section 14 (b) of the Act which stipulated a threshold of N500 million for governance entities deriving 35% of funds from the Consolidated Revenue Funds of the state must subject all procurement of any goods, works and services to the Bureau is too elastic for abuses. This thresh old should be amended to not beyond N50 million.

''We recognize and appreciate section 19 of the Act which recognizes representative(s) of the civil society among observers during Procurement Implementation.

''However, the civil society wants to move beyond Bids Observation to Bids Monitoring in Nigeria and this should be noted by all the State Governments within the Niger Delta.

''We recognized and commend the powers Section 28 of the Act which has embraced Community End-User participation in the delivery of services. This is an emerging best practice around the globe and the Niger Delta has a lot to learn from a Country like Philippines.

''NDEBUMOG however disagrees with the word ‘may’ in this Section, since that means, the Procuring entity may so decide to engage, inform and get the participation of End-User Community. The word ‘may’ should be replaced with ‘must’ or ‘should.

''The threshold for mobilization of contractors at 25-50% on Procurement Work and Services and 60% for supplies of goods should be reviewed downward.

''NDEBUMOG Regional Accountability Centre is however still looking at the Act thoroughly and critically. We shall accordingly issue further statement as we progress beyond this quick examination we undertook on the law'', they said.