FOR the nation's fight against corruption in the public sector to succeed, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) wants ministries, agencies and parastatals to adhere to the Procurement Act 2007.
Also, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has unveiled its blueprint for the privatisation of the 11 companies unbundled from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
Under the plan, according to a statement yesterday by the BPE Head of Public Communications, Mr. Chukwuma Nwoko, 70 per cent of the equity is to be sold to a core investor; 10 per cent to states where the firms are located; eight per cent to the Nigerian public and the remaining two to workers.
Participants, including the NESG, BPP, Manufacturers Association of Nigerian (MAN) and the Federation of Construction Industry in Nigeria (FOCI), at a one-day policy dialogue on eliminating corruption in business processes of government held in Abuja recommended strict adherence to the Procurement Act.
Other recommendations from the event include that "the nine essential steps of public procurement as stipulated in the Act must be transparently and sincerely observed to their logical conclusion", adding also that "conscious efforts should be made continuously to strengthen the BPP to permanently guard against contract inflation and other corrupt practices that frustrate the execution of projects."
Participants at the public dialogue also advocated the "demonstration of leadership by example at the highest levels both in the political, public, and private sectors of the economy", noting that "strong political and international support is necessary to drive home the reform efforts in this regard."
It was also noted that "there is a great need to de-politicise procurement, and ensure that professionals get involved in the process," while "continuous professional training of procurement officers to close competence gaps and strengthen institutional capacity is expedient. Moreso, continuous capacity-building programmes for MDAs, NGOs, civil society organisations, professional bodies and the general public are necessary."
The policy dialogue, which was held in association with the United Nations Global Compact Office (UNGC), is an offshoot of a collaborative partnership between the UN agency and the NESG for the much-needed fight to eliminate corruption in the procurement process of government business.
Part of the objective of the partnership between the UNGC and NESG was to "further strengthen the linkage between the anti-corruption agenda and broader societal and economic issues. By better understanding of the linkage between anti-corruption and the economic opportunities of emerging social issues, the project will further substantiate ways in which responsible ethical business practice is not only morally right, but can also be financially rewarding."
Participants at the event agreed that a "programme-based budgeting system with proper cost and benefit analysis of capital projects should be adopted. Moreover, the National Assembly should accelerate yearly budget approval process, and ensure that yearly budget should recognise and give priority to ongoing and long-term projects."
A continuous procurement and compliance audit for all MDAs was canvassed, as well as sanctions for contravention of the Act were advocated as a means of addressing the issue of corruption in the procurement process.
It was recommended that the National Assembly, as a matter of urgency, should consider all public accounts reports sent yearly to them by the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation and recommend appropriate sanctions.
According to the participants, it should be made mandatory for the Code of Conduct Bureau to publish the returned assets declaration forms of all relevant political and public office holders.
They added that establishing a material pricing and regulatory commission "will help to ensure and update price databank as well as materials quality control and assurance."
Nwoko said that the BPE blueprint was unveiled yesterday in Abuja in a paper entitled: "The privatisation of the power sector: The journey so far", which was delivered at the power sector workshop by the acting Director of Electric Power at the BPE, Ibrahim Babagana.
He said Babagana explained that the divestiture strategy for the distribution companies would be primarily based on the "use of quality of service/efficiency parameters considered against investment proposals made by bidders aimed at reducing Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC &C) losses over an agreed timeframe."
In addition, the strategy will be built around the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO.) The merits of the strategy, according to him, are that they emphasise technical, financial and managerial competence of operators; and have the shortest curve for reducing subsidies, guarantees and section payment delinquency.
Babagana pointed out that to the extent that an operator fails to meet regulatory targets in terms of efficiency improvements, any additional costs would have to be absorbed by the operator. Besides certainty on recovery of investments by investors, the BPE director added that the benefits of efficiency improvements would be shared between the operators and consumers through tariff reductions.
In addition, he stated that "government will for the first time begin to earn some return on its remaining equity interest in the distribution companies and can within a specified time cease financial support altogether."
On the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), a five-year management contract has been proposed. According to Babagana, the management contract will bring the required expertise to transform TCN into a world-class company.
He said: "Technical loss reduction and network improvement criteria will be adopted in selecting the management contractor."
He stated that transmission network investment would be funded through bonds issued by TCN Plc, adding that the bond would be retired from revenues accruing from consumer tariffs at no extra cost to government.
The Guardian