The Director General of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), Dr Adebowale Adedokun, and his predecessor, Emeka Ezeh, have opposed the proposed amendment to the Public Procurement Act, which seeks to punish contractors who unnecessarily delay the completion or abandon projects awarded to them.
They made their position known at the public hearing on a Bill to Amend Procurement Act, organised by the House Committee on Public Procurement, held at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, on Monday.
The present and former BPP Directors General informed lawmakers that amending the law to punish contractors was unnecessary, as such provisions were usually contained in the contract.
According to Adedokun, the Public Procurement Act of 2007 harmonised the existing government policies and practices through regulations, standardisations and development of the legal framework for public procurement in the country to encourage competition and transparency.
“The intending amendment seeks to sanction contractors who delay completing the contract within a stipulated time. This sanction is generally included in the contract conditions, and it is outside the intention of the PPA.
“The Public Procurement Act does not regulate contract implementation. Rather, the standard condition of contract and contract of agreement regulates whatever transpires after a validly awarded contract. In this regard, the clauses in the contract agreement prescribing sanctions for contractors, which are included in the Bureau’s Standard Bidding Documents, should be enough.
“Therefore, the proposal to incorporate contract implementation procedures into the Public Procurement Act needs to be more robust and will negate the intentions of its establishment.
“The Bureau, as the regulatory body and by the powers conferred on it by the Act, has issued Standard Bidding Documents and Conditions of Contract, which are of global standards and have already catered penalty for erring contractors.
“The Bureau, therefore, recommends that the Committee help properly implement and enforce the existing laws by ensuring that funds for contracts awarded should be provided as and when due.
“Given the above, the Bureau respectfully requests the committee to reconsider the amendment and seeks the Parliament’s support for proper implementation of the Public Procurement Act to enhance efficiency in the public Procurement space in Nigeria,” he said.
For his part, the immediate past BPP Boss, Ezeh, maintained that though the proposed amendment’s intention may appear noble, it focused on addressing an effect rather than the cause of an obvious challenge in our contracting environment.
He said, “I will instead advise that the challenge be seen from a holistic picture, Starting from needs assessment to project design/preparation/project scoping through adequate budgetary provision to procurement process (selection of contractor) to contract execution( project implementation).
“The proposed amendment tends to focus on the last leg of the project delivery chain, a contract management issue not usually covered by public procurement legislation. However, a project can be compromised at any stage, leading to a delay in completion.
“For instance, if a need is not well articulated, the solution provided by the project could lead to the risk of abandonment, or if the design was not competently done or due to time constraints, detailed feasibility/engineering designs were not done, at the stage of implementation, issues of variations/augmentations could arise.
“In the same vein, if an incompetent contractor is selected due to abuse in applying relevant guidelines during procurement, the project will be at risk of delays. Again, even if there were no risks up to contract award, which is what the proposed amendment assumes, a project could be delayed due to nonpayment as and when due or due to new government fiscal policies that could impact the project’s cost.”
The committee’s chairman, Hon Unyime Idem, said one mischief that has plagued the country’s public procurement space was contractors’ practice of unduly, intentionally, and without any fear of sanctions delaying projections.
He said the mischief was driven by several factors, such as the contractors’ incompetence, the non-prioritisation of federal government projects, the plan to apply for price variation, bad faith, compromise, the absence of patriotism, economic sabotage, and corruption.
should likely deploy the best project management practice by purchasing materials upfront and locking down prices
“While a contractor may argue that inflation and devaluation may impact its costs, it is expected that each contractor must have shown enough financial capacity, which would have contributed to the contract award. Therefore, the contractor likely should deploy the best project management practice by purchasing materials upfront and locking down prices, if possible.
“I must also add that this culture of project delays preceded the current problem of inflation and devaluation. Hence, it is a problem we must now address from a legislative perspective. The instant problem impacts governance in Nigeria and has affected our ability to deliver the dividends of democracy to the Nigerian people.
“We as legislators engage with our constituents, who are at the grassroots level, and when we are confronted with the issue of delayed and/or abandoned projects, we struggle to find answers and explanations,” Idem said.
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