By Bassey Udo
The Federal Government has blamed the recurring problem of abandoned public projects on rigid interpretations of procurement regulations, as the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) have begun talks on amending the Public Procurement Act, 2007, to align procurement processes with current realities and ongoing reforms.
The talks began on Tuesday at a strategic engagement at the NRS headquarters in Abuja, where the BPP Director-General, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, led a delegation to meet NRS leadership.
The Executive Chairman of NRS, Zacch Adedeji, said the proposed amendment would help address challenges in public procurement and ensure that government spending of projects execution delivered the best value to Nigerians.
“We need to look at the Public Procurement Act and see how we can review and revalidate its provisions to reflect the current realities. We need to set up a technical committee that will look at the Act and make recommendations on what needs to be done,” Adedeji said.
The NRS chairman stressed that effective procurement was essential to ensuring that public funds were properly utilised, noting that abandoned projects amounted to a waste of taxpayers’ money.
“When people pay taxes, they expect to see the value of what they have paid for. If projects are abandoned or do not deliver what they are meant to deliver, then the money collected from the people has not achieved its purpose,” he argued.
He noted that better procurement practices could encourage tax compliance by giving citizens the confidence that public revenue was being spent responsibly.
Adedeji pledged the NRS’ contribution to the proposed overhaul by way of personnel, funding and expertise drawn from the country’s recent tax reforms.
Highlighting the benefits of the proposed overhaul, Adedeji pointed out that taxpayers would pay more willingly if they saw that public money was well spent on the execution of projects that add value to their lives.
“Anytime I see abandoned projects, I see it as tax collected and being wasted, because it is either paid from the tax collected or the loan taken that we’ll use tax to pay in the future,” he said.
Projects financed through borrowing ultimately impose a burden on taxpayers, making their completion essential, he said, adding: “When people pay taxes, they expect to see the value of what they have paid for. If projects are abandoned, or do not deliver what they are meant to deliver, then the money collected from the people has not achieved its purpose.”
The NRS chairman questioned whether provisions written under different economic conditions still fit today realities, citing restrictions on advance payments and contract approval limits.
He said visible improvements in infrastructure and public services would strengthen public confidence in tax administration.
In his speech during the meeting, Adedokun said the bureau was pursuing at least 29 procurement reforms that the existing law cannot accommodate.
“We are undertaking for the first time in the history of this country not less than 29 reforms that the current state of the Procurement Act cannot accommodate,” he disclosed.
The proposed changes include electronic procurement, involving digitising the process from needs assessment to payment, and improving the collection of applicable taxes at source; community-based contracting, that allow businesses compete for smaller government contracts in their own localities, instead of travelling to Abuja, and sector-specific procedures that replace uniform requirements that create difficulties for projects with distinct technical needs as well as affirmative procurement that guarantees preferential access for women, youths, persons with disabilities and military veterans.
Also, the BPP boss disclosed that the bureau launched a digital capacity-building platform for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
Describing the BPP as an enabler, rather than a bottleneck, Adedokun said the agency exist to solve problems and ensure that procurement supported the effective delivery of government projects.
He attributed some government abandoned projects to rigid interpretation of procurement regulations, citing the construction of the NRS headquarters as an example of how procedural flexibility within the law could facilitate effective completion of a project.
The bureau, he said, also stepped in to help complete the long-abandoned headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, defending the government’s earlier revision of approval thresholds, which now allows Chief executives of government agencies to approve certain contracts below N10bn, as well as goods and services contracts below N5bn, subject to applicable procedures.
Reviewing thresholds and approval limits, he said, could speed up project execution, while keeping compliance intact.
Adedokun however warned government agencies against bypassing procurement requirements, particularly where the procedure required the bureau’s certificate of no objection before proceeding on the execution of projects or contracts.
Stressing that cost alone should not decide the award of contracts, he said the Bureau was not after the lowest cost, rather after value for money, adding that higher-priced bids that promise better outcomes are sometimes approved over low priced bids.
“The objective is to ensure that what government pays for delivers the quality and benefits expected,” he said.
Adedokun called for a comprehensive national contractors’ database to improve oversight and accountability by giving better information on businesses in public procurement, strengthen tax compliance and curb revenue leakages by helping government identify and monitor contractors.
He asked for NRS support in the area of professional training, the proposed amendments and the expansion of the BPP’s institutional presence across the country.
Also speaking, the NRS Group Director, Support Services, Kunle Ogidi, who recalled that the Bureau helped the revenue agency with procurement documentation, compliance training and project execution in the past, said maintaining such collaboration would help strengthen its processes and support NRS’ work and those of other Ministries, Departments and Agencies in delivering value to the people.
He said the engagement between NRS and BPP would help both agencies identify procurement challenges that the proposed legislation could address.
