Federal Gov’t Mulls Raising Procurement Threshold For Ministers

The federal government is considering a proposal to increase budget thresholds for ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) in order to reduce the time spent on procurement-related discussions and allow for greater focus on policy deliberations.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this to State House correspondents on Wednesday after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He noted that a significant portion of memos brought before the council pertained to contract approvals.

“You will notice that so many of these memos coming to the council are related to procurement contracts at the FEC level. So FEC thought that it is good to review that so that more time will be given to policy discussions at different Executive Council meetings,” Idris said.

The proposal, still under deliberation, seeks to empower ministers and heads of MDAs with higher approval limits, reducing the frequency of procurement-related memos reaching the FEC.

This shift, according to the minister, was a key point of discussion during the meeting, with President Tinubu leading the debate.

“The idea is that it’s not yet conclusive what the final decisions are, but there is a very fruitful debate led by the chairman of the council, Mr. President himself, to review that so that we can have more time for policy discussions at the Federal Executive Council meetings,” he explained.

To refine the proposal, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and relevant ministers have been tasked with working out the details.

Their recommendations will be presented to the FEC for final approval by the President in the near future.

“If you observed, all the memos presented here largely related to procurements, and so we want that to be decongested at the Federal Executive Council level.

“This will give room for more detailed discussions on policy issues and reduce some of these memos coming by increasing the threshold of those procurement processes to be executed at the ministerial level,” the Minister added.