It is important to carry out operational explanations of the concepts in question in this piece-Public procurement, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and good governance in Nigeria; so that justice could be done to the above topic and for an effective communication to be achieved.
It is important to carry out operational explanations of the concepts in question in this piece-Public procurement, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and good governance in Nigeria; so that justice could be done to the above topic and for an effective communication to be achieved.
The whole idea of public procurement and due process in Nigeria’s public finance management took a new turn in the second lap of Obasanjo’s presidency and the superintending actions and influence of several development partners and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala the current Managing Director of the World Bank and the then Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So, public procurement has been defined variously as a process through which government contracts with contractors, suppliers, consultants to obtain goods, services and construction required to fulfill its objectives in most timely and cost effective manner. It has also been seen according to Professor Bola Afolabi, as a process whereby the government meets its needs for goods, construction and services in a way that achieves value for money on a whole-life cycle basis; in terms of generating benefits not only to the government department involved but also to society and economy as a whole whilst minimizing damage to the environment.
On the other hand, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are public institutions through which government implements its policies and programmes.It constitutes the body of career public and civil servants who are burdened with the responsibility of giving meaning to public policies and programmes for the wellbeing of the people and the achievement of the objectives and goals of government.MDA’s are permanent institutions that ensure continuity and neutrality in governance.
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Good governance entails effective and efficient services to the people and the use of public resources to secure the maximum welfare for the greatest number of the people. It is the provision of essential social amenities and infrastructure to enable the people realize their potentialities.
Having done the above clarifications, it is now clearer that there is an eminent link among the three variables in ushering in a regime of socio-economic and political development of any economy. The role of the budget in socio-economic transformation of societies need not be over-emphasised. Procurement and procurement practices cover the whole gamut of the capital component of any national or state government budget. If there have to be road constructions and rehabilitations to enhance the movement of man and material resources for various economic activities and the promotion of sectors like tourism; they must have to be integrated in the annual budget, which is a major economic planning tool of democratic governments. The need to improve health care systems for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as it relates to maternal and infant mortality is basically achieved through the instrumentality of the appropriation law and its due and proper implementation. All infrastructural facilities that usually constitute the backbone of every economic growth and transformation do find expressions in the fiscal policies of the government before they are realised. The centrality of the budget instruments in the workings of governments all over the world puts in strategic context, the place of public bureaucracy in the overall wellbeing of the people.
Civil servants who work in the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government are very central in the conception, preparations and implementation of annual budgets both at the national and sub-national units of governance. As bureaucrats they are the repository of government memory; and functions to ensure stability in the service of the people. The politicians and the military juntas will naturally come and go; but the civil service remains to carry out the public administration roles which are a pre-requisite function for social harmony and survival. The public service exists to oil and facilitate the wheel of governance, but when it fails in its institutional roles of guiding politicians towards people-oriented policy choices; then the chances of economic growth and development becomes dim and slim.
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This is my honest understanding of the role ,ministries, departments and agencies have been playing in the socio-economic and political crises facing Nigeria over the years; that impeding growth and economic progress. The civil servants in Nigeria are dangerously corrupt to the extent that threatens Nigeria’s economic survival. Year in- year out, the poor budget conception and implementations particularly, the capital components are squarely blamed on the incompetence and lack of diligence on the part of ministries, department and agencies of government whose role it is to implement government’s policies and programmes.
According to Emeka Eze, an engineer and the Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) while receiving Steering Committee members of the National Procurement Watch led by Mr.Chibuzo Ekwekwuo on the 30th of November 2009; said that MDAs are to blame for the poor budget implementation of national budgets in Nigeria. According to him, out of the 518 projects submitted for review by Ministries, Departments, Agencies, Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) issued 490 certificates of no objection. Of this number, the Federal Capital Territory submitted 52 projects, out of which 39 were issued certificates, while the ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources had all 24 projects it submitted certificated. The Ministry of Works forwarded 140 projects and received certification for 137; Transport put forward 26 projects and received certification for 24; while all the 53 projects proposed by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources were issued Certificate of No Objection. Engineer Eze said that “if the MDAs are going to implement these projects as they are, Nigerians will not be complaining”.
The MDA’s as institutions for the execution of government programmes also fail in the area of technical competence and capacity needed for the effective implementation of the annual budgets. This was the issue Senator Ayogu Eze attempted to address during the 2010 budget defence sessions of the Ministry of Information and Communications and their Agencies. Ayogu Eze, who serves as the Chairman of Senate Committee on Information and Media said that “20 to 40% implementation recorded by the Executive for 2009 was unsatisfactory and unacceptable to Nigerians. Ministries, Departments and Agencies should stop asking for funds for projects they lack capacity to execute. A situation he said is largely responsible for the poor implementation of the budget.
Again, Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government are the most culpable when the issue is procurement abuses. From Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) through the Ministry of Health, to Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) the story is the same of the violations of the Public Procurement Act 2007 by either the total embezzlement and sharing of funds for the execution of the capital component of their annual budgets; over inflation of actual contract costs or award of huge contracts through poor procurement processes.
The Public Procurement Acts 2007 has spelt out clearly modalities for the award of public contracts; therefore any procurement that failed to meet the standards set out in the procurement law constitutes an abuse of due process in the new procurement regime. The recent scandal in the Nigerian Televisions Authority (NTA) award of contract to the tune of N8.9 billion for the upgrading of their facilities and Outside Broadcast Vans for the last Under-17 World Cup Championship in Nigeria is a case in point. The idea that the Director-General of NTA forwarded the names of 3 contractors to Professor Dora Akuyili who then forwarded the names of the contractors to the Federal Executive Council for approval; without recourse to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and no open or international competitive bidding is a clear abuse of the procurement process.
That the Director General of the Television House paid the contractors in advance, the counter-part funds for the project using their internally generated revenue, when this project had not been earlier appropriated for in the 2009 national budget was a faulty procurement step. By forwarding, the names of the contractors to the Minister of Information and Communications, the NTA Director-General erred and violated Section16 (20), (21) 18, 19, 20(1) and 20(2) of the Public Procurement Act 2007.There was poor estimation of the procurement budget based on the approved threshold for the Agency; inability to determine the best procurement method based on the estimated value and situation of International Competitive Bidding. The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 also made provision for all government Agencies to remit 80% of their operating surplus to the Treasury; therefore, one wonders how the NTA was able to raise the amount they paid to the contractors, if they had been acting in compliance with this public expenditure law.
From the foregoing and the experiences of the country since independence, It is clear that the Nigerian people will not know good governance nor accountability and probity, until those who work in the public service and the heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) acquire the knowledge of fiscal responsibility, due procurement process and accountability in public finance and resource use; or those who have these knowledge come to head and work with these institutions of governance in Nigeria. It is in ministries, Departments and Agencies that Ministers and their civil service counterparts at the end of every fiscal year, in which major projects that would ordinarily have served the needs of the people are not executed; rather huge resources appropriated for these projects are shared among individuals who work in the MDA’s.This was the situation in the Ministry of Health as it involved then Minister, Adenike Grange, a pediatrics professor; who shared millions of capital project funds among his officers in the ministry, instead of returning it to the Treasury.
These situations in the public service structure are highly antithetical to national progress and development. If corruption is to be curtailed; then anti-corruption searchlights have to be redirected to the government ministries, departments and agencies for a total overhaul and value reorientation in the interest of our nation and the common good.
Ugo Jim-Nwoko is a Development Communications Researcher and writes from Flat 2 Plot 17 Yaoundé Street Wuse zone 6 Abuja.
ership is based in Malaysia. You can reach him via: [email protected].
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