Agency certifies procurement requests worth N320b in 2017

Ambode warns MDAS, contractors against misappropriation

LAGOS State Government has revealed that ensuring transparency in its processes and ensuring that residents get value for taxes paid, over 1000 procurement requests valued at N320b were processed and approved last year by the state procurement agency.

Speaking at the yearly procurement summit organised by Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, on Tuesday, the state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, said his administration will not condone any act of misappropriation and misapplication of public funds by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS). The governor, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Tunji Bello, therefore told MDAS to cooperate and comply with the public procurement regulations and processes to ensure proper utilisation of government funds and resources.

“Today, the fact that there is an increasing wide gap between resources at the disposal of government and the needs of the people is a public knowledge. The burden of governance is to ensure judicious application of the limited resources in a way that they taxpaying public receives maximum value for all expenditure incurred by the government.

“The only way we can achieve this is to ensure that all expenditure passes through the established due process as itemised in the public procurement law. The goal is to guide against mismanagement and diversion of public funds.”

The General Manager, Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Fatai Idowu Onafowote, said his agency processed over 1000 requests for approvals of procurement processes valued at over three hundred and twenty billion naira, leading to the issuance of approval instruments utilised by the agency.