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The Bureau of Public Procurement has invited members of the public to report cases of ‘suspicious’ procurement activities in the ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
The reports are to be submitted on the agency’s website.
Checks on the BPP website by our correspondent on Wednesday showed the request for reports on shady procurement activities was in line with the Federal Government’s ‘whistle-blowing’ arrangement.
“Whistle-blowing: Report any suspicious procurement activity and get full backing of the Bureau,” the BPP stated on its website.
A link was provided for the submission of such reports.
Our correspondent observed that those submitting reports on the website are expected to provide some personal information such as first and last names, email address, phone number, address, city of residence and state.
Further checks on the website also indicated that the BPP received petitions online.
Members of the public were advised to submit petitions relating to procurement activities on the website.
The BPP was established to, among other objectives, ensure probity, accountability and transparency in the procurement process.
The bureau was mandated to establish pricing standards and benchmarks, while also ensuring the application of fair, competitive, transparent, value-for-money standards and practices for the procurement and disposal of public assets.
The BPP reviews contracts awarded to contractors by the MDAs, before issuing a certificate of ‘No objection’, which allows the establishments to proceed with the projects.
In a recent report, the bureau said it saved more than N26.86bn for the Federal Government in 2018 after revising inflated contract sums submitted by government contractors.
The report explained that the BPP saved the amount in the course of its routine review of contracts.
According to the report, in 2018, 86 certificates of ‘No objection’ were issued by the bureau to the MDAs for contracts initially totalling N1.421tn but later reduced to N1.394tn after the review. |
