The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria (CIPSMN) has called on the Federal Government to inaugurate the National Procurement Council to give the country the lead in effective procurement.
The North Central Zonal Coordinator of the Institute, Mr Abdul Mamman, made the call in Abuja at the 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Institute.
Mamman said the country would benefit from the inauguration of the Council as it would help to eradicate corruption associated with procurement processes.
“Nigeria is set to benefit from it if it really allows what needs to be done; but what we are seeing now in Nigeria is that the economy has been warbling.
“The government is trying but whatever good intention you have, if the structures to implement the plan are not properly trained and well endowed in the knowledge area, definitely complaints will come from people you are targeting.
“The National Council of Public Procurement, since 2007 when it was established as the first chapter of the Act, has not been inaugurated.
“If they (members) were inaugurated, the function of the council is about policy enunciation and policy making to track the activities of those who are ensuring compliance in the Public Procurement Act, that is the BPP.”
Mamman said that the non-inauguration of the Council had given rise to non-professionals taking procurement delivery in government agencies whom he said had oftentimes produced inefficiencies.
The newly elected president of the Institute, Alhaji Sikiru Balogun, promised to engage State Executives to take their leading role in procurement across the country.
“I want to make sure that all the jobs taken away from us by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), as entrenched in the Public Procurement Act of 2007, will be taken back and there will be adherence to our existing procurement Act.
“In fact, there are a lot of things that will make us move forward and we are planning for it. You know being a president of an executive is a team job. So, My team will plan and make sure things are right,” Balogun said.
The out-gone president of the Institute, Ado Jibrin, said it behooved professionals to take their stand to ensure that the right things were done in procurements in order to curb corruption.
According to him, unless procurement officers are allowed to do their jobs rather than bringing unprofessionals to man the procurement departments, the country will not make any progress.
“To be candid, one of the major reasons why we are having this crisis is because the professional procurers are not being used in the government sector and the public sector.
“Most of those who are assigned the responsibility in various MDAs are those who went for the Bureau training for two to three weeks and then they graduated as professionals.
“While to be a professional member through the Institute of purchasing and supply actually, you need to spend a minimum of 18 months which is excluding those who have read purchasing right from the word go- ND, HND in purchasing; this is excluding them.
“So obviously we give vigorous training with regards to the entire profession; it’s not just a periphery lecture that we give and you say you are qualified.
“You can’t give someone a training and just say he’s a Doctor or whatever; there are procedures.
“That’s what we want the government to take note of.
“Even at BPP, we are not quarrelling with them; they have their Act, we have our Act,” Jibrin said.
