The Director General of Plateau State Bureau of Public Procurement, Mr. Peter Dogo said agency has always been fair and transparent in all its procurement processes to enable government have value for money in the state.
He noted that the agency is working assiduously to ensure that all Ministries, Departments and parastatals key into electronic procurement processes to meet up with the global based practices for transparency.
Mr. Dogo disclosed this yesterday when a team of Journalists in Plateau trained by Accountability Lab Nigeria paid him a familiarization visit in his office in Jos with a view to ensure accountability and transparency in procurement of projects in the state.
He explained that the procurement processes are followed to the later without compromised to ensure the right contractors are awarded projects based on their strength and ability to deliver within specification.
He said, “No procurement is carried out if it is not captured in the budget of the state, which ever angle Yu are coming from and you want us to give you certificate for compliance for award, the first thing we do is to go to the budget for verification if the project is captured.
“We must find out if the project is in the budget and how much is allocated for the project before we now find out if you are competent to handle a project that is above the sum or not.
“This is to tell you that every procurement has a procedure as a result of the magnitude or as a result of the specialty of the project. There are guidelines on how to carry out procurement, some are based on shopping, in this case we ensure that the specification for the procurement are adhered to.”
Mr. Dogo who gave progress report on how ministries are prepared to migrate to electronic procurement, he said two more ministries are bill to be added to the Bureau portal by 2023 as the Ministry of Secondary Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry Work are left with no choice than to comply with the electronic System.
He said, “The processes of procurement
begin with a needs assessment that culminates into budget of a department. Now, they are aggregated into a budget of a Ministry, ones the budget has been passed in the State Assembly, it come a working document.
“The next thing is the Procurement plan stating what methods to apply and from now we move to advertisement either on Newspapers, Radio or Bureau notice board. The contractors will bid, which is the bidding tendered process leading to the award of contracts and all these will be electronically.”
Dogo said inadequate funding, lack of manpower among others are factors affecting optimal performance of the agency.
Source: The Sun
