SGF Tasks Procurement Officers on Accountability, Transparency
The Secretary General to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, has urged public procurement officers in Nigeria to promote the values of transparency and accountability in the discharge of their duties.
Mustapha, disclosed this in Lagos at the opening ceremony of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), 2018 Procurement Officers’ Conversion Training, for fresh entrant into procurement cadre in Lagos on Monday.
He stated that transparency and accountability were critical to economic development and good governance, “as people’s expectation of service and infrastructure from government has not change.”
Mustapha, who was represented by the Director (Audit) Office of the SGF, Mbaeri Maurice, stated that only officers employed as procurement officers or converted to the professional cadre are permitted to conduct procurement functions.
“That BPP is vested with the responsibility of managing careers of officers in the procurement cadre of the federal public service and to ensure that only BPP-trained and certified procurement officers can henceforth be posted to function in the procurement cadre in the Ministry, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
“Public procurement officers have a crucial role to play in national infrastructure development, in terms of the skills and competencies that are critical to delivering a transparent and efficient public procurement system that guarantees good value for money,” he said.
He further urged all government agencies to comply with the provision of the public procurement Act and avoid short cuts that undermine government’s anti-corruption posture.
Mustapha, charged procurement officers to step up their collaboration to decisively deal with perpetrators of corruption, including collusion amongst bidders, use of fake documents, false claims by contractors and suppliers and manipulation of the process.
Earlier in his remarks, the Director General, BPP, Mamman Ahmadu, said only trained personnel officer at all government establishments are permitted to conduct procurement function.