Ministers and chief executives of government departments and agencies (MDAs) are now worried that the webs in the Bureau of Public Procurement (BoPP) may stifle the immediate implementation of the already delayed 2016 budget.
The fear came in the open on Onne, near Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at the two-day retreat of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (MITI) where the minister, Okechukwu Enelamah, and heads of over 17 agencies of the Federal Government brainstormed to find quick ways to defend the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) and ‘Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria.’
The retreat was organised by the United Nations Industrial Organisation (UNIDO), which seeks to know the direction of the present administration especially the fate of the NIRP.
The fears grew rife when a director in the BoPP, Eze Obasi, drilled the minister and the CEOs on the various requirements of the Due Process office and the penalties that must come. The highpoint in his presentation seemed to be the jail term that hung in the air for any CEO that failed to comply with any of the steps outlined.
CEOs, who asked for escape routes, seemed to hit the brick-wall as the director sternly shunned anything order than total compliance. This seemed to ring a bell in a regime headed by a president believed to be averse to bending any rule and ready to jail even his closest allies if found wanting.
A major area of worry was Eze’s insistence that splitting (breaking big contracts into small pieces to the same contractor just to bend the rule of limits of a CEO) must not be done. A director who used the excuse of funds not being readily available was told that the MDA must therefore award the contract in one lump sum but with phases so that the BoPP would know the total sum against the limit of the powers of the awarding agency.
Many other CEOs who put forward other excuses were promptly put down, being told that anything contrary to the provisions of the Due Process law would amount to a breach, which he said was punishable with jail term.
As the mood in the cold hall of the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority Conference hall went moody, the Minister reminded the director from the BoPP that the 2016 budget was running late and that funds not dispensed must be returned to the treasury at the end of the budget deadline.
Enelamah wondered how the MDAs would meet up with processes required by law to still execute the projects that were approved in the just signed budget. He said there was need for the BoPP to look into their books and give valid advice to the CEOs to be able to both obey the law and still deliver on Mr President’s vision and duty to Nigerians.
The minister talked about the letter and spirit of the Due Process law, saying though both were important but the masses expected action now that the budget has been signed into law.
He reminded the BoPP that their bureau was always given as excuses by MDAs for not executing mandated projects and programmes and asked the directors in the Bureau to consider ways of removing themselves from such excuses by simplifying the processes so that the law can still be obeyed.
Some CEOs wondered if the steps could be reduced in such a way that it would not disarm the bureau but still allowed MDAs to work faster. The CEOs wondered how the six weeks required for publications of notice in the national newspapers would be met before the year would run out, saying several things needed to be done before publications would be made.
The BoPP director said the conditions were sacrosanct and urged the CEOs to better start now to pursue the processes and steps, an indication that waivers and other escapes were not going to be available anymore in Buhari era.
