‘E-Procurement Will Eliminate 90% of Corruption Cases’

Emma Okonji

The Director, Energy Infrastructure at the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Babatunde Kuye has said the e-Procurement system introduced in the Bureau is yielding good results in the area of addressing the ills of corruption in the system, insisting that it will eliminate over 90 per cent of corruption cases in the system, when fully automated.

Kuye, who spoke to journalists at the end of a three-week conversion training programme in Lagos, organised by BPP for procurement cadre in parastatals, institutions, commissions and agencies of the federal government, said the training would complement the gains of e-Procurement and further expose procurement officers to the basic principles of public procurement and how to use technology in addressing challenges around procurement.

Kuye, who represented the Director-General of BPP, Mamman Ahmadu, said the 2018 conversion training, which was designed for procurement officers in government agencies and parastatals that want to convert to the procurement cadre, would help them understand the business of public procurement better and apply the knowledge in their various offices across the country.

“They were trained on the basic principles of public procurement and how to use technology in addressing challenges around procurement. BPP has deplored technology solution in its entire procurement value chain and participants were trained on how best to use technology to achieve faster and better results. BPP has a mandate to prevent corruption in government agencies, and the training will help address that and also ensure that procurement officers adhere to BPP rules and regulations,” Kuye said.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, in his keynote speech, said the importance that BPP attaches to its training programmes, show its disposition to align with government priorities such as public procurement.

In his welcome address, Ahmadu encouraged participants to effectively use the knowledge gained from the training to promote the goals and aspirations of BPP in the area of public procurement and accountability.

“The commitment of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari on the change agenda to ensure a sustainable procurement process that will birth the Nigeria of our dream, devoid of corruption, can be achieved through a remarkable hands-on capacity development that will bring to fore, that transparency and accountability needed in the public procurement process.

“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,” Ahmadu said.

According to him, BPP had been involved in different capacity building programmes at different levels of governance, which he said, necessitated the need for the Bureau to take the lead in the reform process, while developing the kind of capacity muscles needed for the success of the reform through regular training.