The Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the National Identity Management Commission, Hadiza Dagabana, has called for the amendment of the Public Procurement Act.
According to a statement jointly signed by the Communications Manager of the Nigeria Digital Identification Project, Dr Walter Duru and NIMC’s Head of Corporate Communications, Kayode Adegoke, she stated this at a three-day interactive workshop with the theme ‘Procurement and understanding of the World Bank Procurement Process, Procedures, and Ecosystem Enrolment Readiness”, organised by the ID4D Project in collaboration with NIMC in Lagos, on Monday.
She said, “The Public Procurement Act was passed in 2007. We are in 2023. A lot of things have changed over the years and there are so many gaps in the Act. It is time for an amendment.”
She described the workshop as impactful, urging the participants to put into practice the knowledge acquired.
Speaking at the event, the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Engr Aliyu Abubakar, urged the members of his management team commission to adhere strictly to the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.
The NIMC CEO stressed that the event was put together to enhance the capacity of the management team on the provisions and application of the Act.
Also, the Project Coordinator of Nigeria Digital Identification Project, Musa Solomon, said “There was the need for understanding the meeting point between the country’s procurement laws and the World Bank’s procurement regulations.”
In her overview of the Act and its convergence with the World Bank Procurement Regulations for Borrowers, the Acting Director of Procurement at NIMC, Princess Iwok, called on public institutions in Nigeria to embrace transparency and accountability in all their transactions, reiterating that sanctions apply for violation of the public procurement law.
Iwok identified some common offences in procurement as “bid rigging, collusion, splitting of contracts, procurement fraud, altering procurement documents, willful refusal to allow bureau and its officer’s access to any procurement records and using fake documents.”
She highlighted some of the sanctions for violation of the Public Procurement Act are imprisonment upon conviction, among others.
On the convergence between World Bank Procurement Guidelines for Borrowers and Nigeria Public Procurement Act 2007, Iwok stressed that “both the World Bank Procurement Guidelines and Nigeria’s Public Procurement Law emphasise the importance of procurement planning”.
She further argued that “While there are some similarities between the two procurement frameworks, it is important to note that the World Bank Procurement Guidelines are generally more comprehensive and detailed than Nigeria’s Public Procurement Law. As such, borrowers in Nigeria that are subject to the World Bank Procurement Guidelines will need to ensure that their procurement practices are consistent with both frameworks,” she stressed.
In his presentation on “Proposal and Bid Evaluation procedures/Project Risk Management and Control strategy”, the Procurement Officer of the Project Implementation Unit of the ID4D Project, Ibrahim Abu, argued that “Procurement is infused with numerous risks.”
He made a case for proper risk management practices and tactics to reduce the risks.
