Comply with procurement Act, Unity Schools’ Principals told.

[FMINigeria]

                        Principals of Federal Government Colleges, otherwise known as Unity Schools, have been advised to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act in the implementation of the 2013 appropriation.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, gave the advice at a one-day workshop organised by the Ministry to sensitize the Principals, Bursars and other relevant officers in the schools on the guidelines on public procurement.  He warned that ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breach of the provisions of the Act.

"Accounting Officer of a procurement entity has the responsibility to ensure that the provisions of this Act and the regulations laid down by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) are complied with, and the concurrent approval by any Tender's Board shall not absolve the accounting officer from accountability for anything done in contravention of this Act or the regulations laid down hereunder", he said.

Dr. Nwaobiala stated that the workshop was organized to acquaint officers with content of the Act and other procurement regulations in order to avoid pitfall.

He enjoined the Principals to put in place what he called Procurement Planning Committees (PPC) in their schools, comprising of all relevant officers in the implementation processes, which will guide in project planning in line with available resources and the critical needs of the schools.

The Director of Procurement in the Ministry and the organizer of the workshop, Mallam Aliyu Shehu, took the participants through laid down procurement processes which he said aims at ensuring transparency, efficiency and level playing ground in procurement activities.

He enjoined participants never to compromise standard in favour of low biddings by contractors.  This is even as he advised that the schools should embark on projects that can be completed and put to immediate use rather than embarking on white elephant projects.

Speaking in the same vein, the Director of Finance and Account, Mr. Peter Momodu advised that contract should not be awarded  based on mere budgetary provisions that have not translated to cash, noting that over the years, releases had been a problem.

Some of the issues raised by participants in the course of the meeting include long bureaucracy in contract award processes by various supervising Ministries and Departments and poor funding of projects. One of the Principals cited a situation whereby the sum of 8 billion naira was appropriated for a project while only 1.9 million was the total releases for the year.

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria