BPSR Lauds IPCR’s Robust Financial Management, Hails DG

The Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has commended the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) for its robust and prudent resource management and procurement process, which it said complies with extant laws of the country.

Director General of the bureau, Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi, gave this commendation when he led a team of the bureau to the IPCR for presentation of the statutory assessment report of the activities of IPCR and presentation of awards to the institute.

Mr. Arabi   congratulated Dr. Joseph Ochogwu on his appointment as director general of IPCR, adding that it did not come as a surprise to him because of Ochogwu’s commitment to tackling the enormous problems confronting the country through through conflict resolution mechanisms.

He said; “IPCR has robust public financial management, financial and accounting policies that comply with financial regulations which it clearly reviews to ensure efficient and reliable mechanism in line with the extant laws of the country.”

On procurement, Mr Arabi expressed satisfaction with the procurement process of the institute, stressing that it had established adequate systems and procedures and built experienced personnel with required capacity to exercise procurement activities.

He noted that the institute awards contracts only to bidders that comply with all the   specifications for procurement process and procedures even as he assured that the bureau would work with the institute to improve their capacity.

 He added that the IPCR had met the expectations in all critical goals and declared as a  Third Level Silver Level organization,  which means the institute’s performance consistently meets expectations in areas of responsibility  and the quality of work.

He, however, recommended that  the institute should develop a stakeholders engagement mechanism, assess the performance of staff, establish award systems, digitize  data processes and  identify short and long term collaboration with partners as well as  establish health and safety policies for the well-being of staff.

He also recommended that the institute develop asset management and inclusive policy, develop a formal code of conduct and develop operations and strategic plan and internal control system and to create a mechanism to collaborate with development partners as well as insurance policies for its officers and create anti-corruption standards.

He charged them to address some of the shortcomings of the institute in order to achieve the goals of the institute through innovation, planning and deployment of self-assessment tools even as he advised them to conduct periodic assessment of their performance.

In his reaction, the IPCR director general, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, expressed happiness with the objective assessment of the institute by the bureau, adding that this would encourage the Institute to address their challenges within their operational system and work in synergy to achieve its mandate through resource mobilization plan.