The National President, Association of Public Procurement Practitioners of Nigeria, Mr. Emem Kanico has assured that his association will ensure compliance to the Public Procurement act, which came into operation since 2007.
Speaking when he led members of the newly constituted Exco of the Association of Public Procurement practitioners to the FCT Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists on Thursday, Kanico stressed that the era when procurement processes were treated with levity and without consequences was over, following the coming on board of the association.
His words, “If you read the Public Procurement Act and see all the drivers of procurement, you will see that the accounting officer is on top, the next thing you are going to see is the Tenders Board, followed by the Procurement Planning Committee, BPC, then the procurement officers/cadre, which is referred to as the Internal Stakeholders.
“If you go down the ladder, you will see the Civil Society Organisations, the Contractors, then the Media, which we refer to as the external stakeholders, further down the ladder is the BPP, which is the regulator, further down the line is the Police, EFCC, ICPC, investigators and Prosecutors.
“Our visit to the Council Sir, is to meet with our “Critical stakeholders.
“There’s nothing we can do at this level without the media, that is why we have come to seek your support and ask you to throw your weight behind us, so that we can build a better association.
“The aim of this association is to ensure and promote transparency in the public procurement process in all the MDAs in Nigeria.
“Also we will report any contravention of the sections of the Act to the EFCC, ICPC and the BPP.
“Secondly we aim to give corporate identity to procurement practitioners in Nigeria; also we are out to ensure the training and re-training of officers within the cadre, so that you will know that the BPP trained us and converted us to this cadre, after the training we become procurement officers and we are in all the agencies.
“If you want to stop corruption in the procurement process, you need the officers to partner with you, we are here to ensure compliance, because the guiding word is “Compliance”, because if you follow the nine steps of procurement religiously, it will bring corruption to a minimal level.”
The APPON pioneer leader lamented the shabby treatment meted out to procurement practitioners in Federal Government agencies across the country.
“A situation where people wakeup and operate the way they want and nobody says no has to stop, we are here to say “no” to such unprofessional practices.
“We must ensure due process is followed to ensure value for money and fitness for purpose”
Reacting to the statement made by the National President of APPON, the chairman, FCT council of the NUJ, Emma Ogbeche congratulated the association for finding the courage to come together to streamline the procurement process.
Ogbeche cautioned against using the association as a platform for holding government MDAs to ransom, but rather it should add value to government processes.
He charged the association to use its pioneering role to ensure that it becomes the barometer to setting right the procurement process of government.
