Stop FEC contract awards, Senate tells Jonathan

[DT]

The Senate yesterday told President Jonathan to set up the National Council on Public Procurement to stop what Senator David Mark called "sheer illegality" going on in government contract awards.  A law enacted in 2007 provides for the setting up of a procurement council to be responsible for vetting and endorsing all government contracts, but the council has not been inaugurated and the Federal Executive Council has been discharging this function ever since.

Last week, President Jonathan was quoted in an interview with Tell magazine as saying that he would set up a desk of World Bank officials in his office to scrutinise government contracts so as to reduce corruption in the existing structures.

But civil society groups and lawmakers faulted this move, saying that the President should instead abide by the Public Procurement Act of 2007 to inaugurate the NCPP.

Yesterday, the Senate also waded into the matter when it adopted a motion sponsored by Senator Ahmed Lawal and 16 others, calling on Jonathan to set up the council as provided by law.

Lawal said the Public Procurement Act took effect in June 2007 and provides for the setting up of the National Council on Public Procurement and the Bureau of Public Procurement as regulatory organs for government contracts.

He said provisions of the law have not been fully implemented.

Senators spoke in favour of the motion, urging the President to set up the council and stop circumventing of the law.

Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River) said failure to establish the council could be an oversight on the part of the Presidency but that it was an infraction for the BPP to have been operating without the council.

"I think the implication is that all actions taken so far are really questionable", he said.

Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South) argued that the non-implementation of the procurement law had allowed corruption to thrive in the award of contracts.

"It is very appalling that laws passed by the legislature are not usually implemented," Manager said.

Senate President David Mark said, "It is not about whether it is questionable or illegal. The point here is that the government has failed to do what it is supposed to do five years ago. That is what this motion is all about.

"But unfortunately, our resolutions are not binding. I recall in the sixth Senate we had a bill to make our resolutions binding and  we then said that we would have a two-third majority so that the motions will become binding like in the United States and Brazil. Until we do that, we cannot say our resolutions are binding at the moment.

"This is not just about a resolution being binding. There is much more than that. There is sheer illegality here and the earlier it is corrected, the better for everybody."

There was no immediate reaction from the Presidency over the Senate resolution yesterday.

But in an interview with the Guardian newspaper published days ago, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati reacted to a similar resolution by the House of Representatives.

He said the procurement council would not be inaugurated because the law subordinates the Federal Executive Council to the National Council on Public Procurement.

"The Office of the President has noted the resolution of the House of Representatives on the imperative of inaugurating the National Council on Procurement. However, the main issue the council has not been inaugurated is not far to seek," Abati was quoted as saying.

"Government has proposed an amendment to the Public Procurement Act 2007. The reason for this proposed amendment is that there is a contradiction in the law that sets up the council that has a member of the Federal Executive Council, the Minister of Finance, as the chairman.

"But there is a rule in the book that the council cannot approve certain level of contracts, without the Federal Executive Council's endorsement. But the law now says the council should approve anything.

"How can a council, headed by a member of the FEC, be more powerful than the FEC that produces the minster? There is a contradiction there that the proposed amendment seeks to remove for it to be functional.

"An example is this: Can the procurement council approve one trillion naira worth of contracts? It is the same Minister of Finance that heads the council that will pay. How can that work?"

Abati said even under the late President Umaru Yar'Adua, who signed the procurement law, the council was not inaugurated for three years.

"The reason was the same; the law could not be implemented. The Federal Executive Council has the final say on certain level of contracts. That is the contradiction in the act that has to be eliminated.

"What is the work of the FEC set up by the Constitution? Can the act be higher than the Constitution? That is the trouble with the council."

DailyTrust