The President, Association of Procurement Practitioners of Nigeria (APPON), Mr Emem has disclosed that procurement in public service which are handled by non-professionals accounts for some substandard projects in Nigeria.
He made this known during a courtesy visit to Senator Bwacha, the Senate committee chairman on public procurement.
Emem, while talking with senator Bwacha congratulated him for handling the committee very peacefully and contributing to national development through enforcement of the provisions of the public procurement acts and also reminded him of the draft bill which they had submitted for the establishment of Procurement Practitioners Council of Nigeria in 2021, urging him to pursue the bill.
Emem pointed out that procurement in Nigeria has been bastardized because procurement in so many agencies of government and parastatals has been handled by mostly untrained public office holders who has no business in procurement.
This, Emem noted has affected these agencies and accounts for most substandard projects in Nigeria, hence the need to Establish the Procurement Practitioners Council of Nigeria.
He also reminded the Distinguished Senator of a 2017 Secular from the presidency prohibiting non- procurement officers from handling procurement which have not been fully followed. Hence, the need to Establish the Procurement Practitioners Council of Nigeria has sufficed.
The Council shall be a Corporate Body –
(a) with perpetual succession and a common seal;
(b) which may sue or be sued in its corporate name; and
(c) which may acquire, hold, purchase, mortgage and deal howsoever with property, movable or immovable, real or personal.
The National President of APPON also used the opportunity to present again the document containing a Bill for an Act for the establishment of the Procurement Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria, for the Registration of Procurement Practitioners, the Regulation of the Conduct of the Members, the Provision of a Displinary Body for the disciplining of it’s members, and for related matter.
“The enactment of that bill vigorously is going to help procurement practice and practitioners in Nigeria. Nobody as of today regulate the sector. The Public Procurement Act is only regulating the policy framework and not the practitioners. Once you are trained and you pass exam and you are converted to procurement officers cadre, you are done. Nobody disciplines you. Nobody guides you, unlike what we’re doing in our association, like continuous integration, training and retraining, for you to build capacity.
“So what we are doing at our level is to maintain standards and for you to maintain standard, you must first of all, train the person to know what the standards are all about. And also, contained in our Blueprints is the code of conduct and ethics.
Emem also invited Senator Bwacha to their forth coming inauguration of their 2022 members .
Senator Bwacha promised to take up their request to the Senate and graciously approved to partner with the association.
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