Three civil society groups in Nigeria have sent a joint protest to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement, protesting on the dangers inherent in the proposed amendments to the Public Procurement Act 2007 now before the Legislature.
The groups are: Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative (PRADIN), Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
In a letter of protest, dated June 28 and jointly signed by the National Coordinator of PRADIN, Mohammed Bougei Attah, the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, and the representative of TUC, Comrade Aliyu Abdulhakeem, the groups warned that the House of Representatives’ Public Hearing of Tuesday July 19 and the Senate version on Thursday May 26 have political undertone and that there are several inconsistencies in the proposed amendments to the Act.
The protest letter, titled ‘Joint Position and Memorandum by Coalition of Civil Society Organizations Working in the Areas of Sound Public Procurement System through Good Governance, Transparency and Accountability’ read in parts: “we wish to put on record that this Memorandum and Joint Statement represents the voice of over 150 CSOs in Nigeria and as represented by Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative (PRADIN) and Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC). Thus, this letter is a follow up to the earlier Memorandum submitted to the Senate Committee on Public Procurement in response to the invitation to the Public Hearing and Call for Memorandum of Thursday 26 of May 2016 as advertised on Thursday May 24”
In particular, the groups noted that the subject of the Public Hearing, as advertised, and as contained on the schedule distributed by the Office of the Clerk to the Senate and House Committees are similar to the amendments proposed earlier in the last two dispensations of Presidents Umar Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan administrations. For the record, the group noted that this is the fourth time the Legislators have attempted to amend the PPA 2007 but failed due to inconsistencies and lack of genuine concern for the subject of transparency that the Act stands.
Further, the groups pointed out certain flaws in the planned amendments which is as advertised reads “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Public Procurement Act 2007, by Adding a new Member to the Council, Amending the Procedure for Appointing the Director General of the Bureau and Extending the Application of the Act to Defence Procurement; and for other Matters Connected Therewith – HB. 16.03.475”
In a swift reaction to the above, the group argued that assuming but not conceding that the intention of the lawmakers – and by extension the Public Hearing – was to amend Section 1 (2) of the Principal Act by removing the Minister of Finance as the Chairman of the National Council for Public Procurement and replacing it with the President, Section 1 (2) (f) of the Principal Act by adding The Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors as member of the National Council for Public Procurement, Section 1 (4) of the Principal Act by deleting ‘The Chairman and other members of the Council shall be appointed by the President’ to only ‘Other members of the Council shall be appointed by the President’ and Section 7 (1) of the Principal Act by making the appointment of the Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) a competitive selection on the recommendation of the Council but to be confirmed by the National Assembly, “the attempt to reinvent or reintroduce what has previously being debated and addressed under the 6th and 7th Legislative Assemblies make the process a self ridicule”
PRADIN, CISLAC and TUC pointed out that the proposal to make the President the Chairman of the yet-to-inaugurated National Council for Public Procurement violates Chapter VI, Part 1 Section 138 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). The section states unequivocally that “The President shall not, during his tenure of office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever”. The wisdom here is that the President already holds such Executive Powers that are above what is currently sought. It is important here to note that the Minister of Finance as the Chairman of the Council (as in the Principal Act) is a representative of the President, much so other members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).”
In the letter, the groups said that if they entertain the request and evaluate it against other standards, by making the President of the country as Chairman of the Council, it implies that the Executive body will now be the Alpha and Omega as well as presiding judge in their case while other arms of government and sector will be at their mercy.
“By this act also, any such statutory report, such as the bi-annual procurement audit report coming from the Council and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) will be biased because it will be solely an executive affair. Again, the independence of the Bureau would have been compromised here because there are three arms of government and the Council is expected to recognize this. The crafters of the law are very conscious of the need for checks and balances such that it does not allow the Council to be at the mercy of one party. It was created in a way that it accommodates all the sectors – public, private and the non-profit sectors – as council members with equal powers.” [myad]
Advertisement
