In a bid to tackle corruption in the country’s procurement sector, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) said it was strengthening its audit systems.
The director general of BPP, Dr Adebowale Adedokun said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement for the 2025 budget defence session.
Also, Adedokun decried the budgetary ceiling placed on the agency, which he feared would hamper this objective among other strategies it plans to adopt to improve the system.
He said during the course of budget planning and preparation, the bureau proposed the total sum of N72 billion but the Budget office allocated a ceiling of N3.283 billion, excluding personnel budget of N649.5 million.
Adedokun said the agency’s 2025 budget primarily focuses on addressing its office accommodation challenge, address monitoring and evaluation of projects throughout the nation, deliver an electronic procurement system to the country as well as build capacity.
“We also realise that we need to also intensify our audit exercise. It is better to prevent than to prosecute. Under our watch our strategy is to ensure we prevent misuse of funds through real time IT tools in procurement audit.
“We want to go digital in terms of our workflow, which means even if DG is not on seat, certification can be done anywhere in the country. We also provided for an upgrade of our national database of contractors and service providers.
“Under the 2025 budget, it would no longer be business as usual. We will be categorizing contractors meaning that contractors of equal competence must bid for projects within their funding capacity.
I want to assure you that we have the capacity to transform the procurement space within the shortest possible time. We will do more if empowered financially.
“If we use procurement as a tool for good governance, it would reduce corruption and poverty and increase employment and industry if this appeal is given due consideration. BPP has the capacity to contribute significantly to the GDP of the country through the innovations we are bringing on board.”
Chairman of the committee, Unyime Idem, said lawmakers were mindful of the ceiling imposed on the agency and they would intervene to salvage the situation.
“I want to assure you that what you have seen before us is the proposal, so we would engage the committee in charge of appropriation to ensure that those inadequacies in terms of funding are addressed.
“I have looked at the data with respect to the allocation to the BPP in 2024, which indicates that it was allocated N2,234,785,641 and N2,110,061,164 was released under the 2024 budget.
“Under the budget proposal before the National Assembly, the Budget Office of the Federation and the Ministry of Budget and National Planning allocated to the BPP a maximum ceiling of N3,383,021,838, excluding personnel cost. This is notwithstanding the impact of inflation between January 2024 and January 2025.
“I have perused the Needs Assessment conducted by the BPP preparatory to the presentation of the extant budget, and I can see that the actual needs of the Bureau comes to about N72,775,250,713.
“I have noted that there are some major critical needs of the Bureau, for example, the Bureau does not have a befitting and functional Office accommodation. An important institution like the BPP that is reviewing huge projects and regulating all the major capital projects in Nigeria should have a befitting office.
“I urge the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to expedite action on leveraging technology to enhance its operations. To effectively regulate, review, and monitor public procurement, the BPP must deploy cutting-edge IT assets, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence,” he said.
