Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, has urged civil society organisations (CSOs) to move beyond monitoring the award of public contracts to tracking whether such contracts deliver the projects and services promised to Nigerians.
Adedokun made the call at the BPP-CSO Engagement 2.0 held yesterday in Abuja, where he said CSOs had an important role to play in strengthening transparency, accountability and citizen participation in public procurement.
He said procurement monitoring should cover the entire process, from procurement planning and contract award through implementation and service delivery, particularly projects that directly affect communities.
“We should not monitor procurement only by asking: ‘Was the contract awarded correctly?’
“We should also ask: ‘Did the contract deliver what Nigerians were promised?’
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“Was the hospital completed? Did the equipment arrive? Is the road functional? Are the classrooms being used? Did the community receive potable water? Was value for money achieved?” Adedokun said.
He said public procurement was ultimately about development, noting that procurement decisions could affect hospitals, schools, roads, electricity supply, security, agriculture, employment and the quality of public services available to citizens.
He said the bureau was seeking a more structured partnership with civil society through a proposed BPP-CSO Public Procurement Partnership Framework.
According to him, the framework would focus on capacity building, access to procurement information and data, project monitoring, reporting and early warning, and citizens’ engagement.
Adedokun said greater use of procurement information and open contracting data would enable CSOs to undertake evidence-based monitoring and identify procurement concerns and implementation challenges.
He stressed that the partnership must not compromise the independence of civil society organisations.
He said: “We do not expect Civil Society Organisations to become an extension of government.
“We expect you to ask questions. We expect you to examine the evidence. We expect you to identify weaknesses. And where necessary, we expect you to challenge us constructively”.
He, however, urged CSOs to ensure that their criticism was evidence-based, while government institutions remained open to scrutiny and recommendations.
On procurement reforms, Adedokun said the BPP was working to move the system beyond procedural compliance towards performance, transparency, integrity and measurable development outcomes.
He said the reforms included stronger procurement review and surveillance, price intelligence, monitoring and evaluation, contractor classification, greater participation of small and medium enterprises and implementation of the Nigeria First Policy. ShopAfrican Art
He added that the bureau was strengthening its digital procurement systems, including the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal, to improve access to procurement information and support greater transparency.
Adedokun said civil society participation in procurement oversight was already recognised under the Public Procurement Act 2007, noting that Section 19 provides for credible observers, including representatives of non-governmental organisations working in transparency, accountability and anti-corruption.
He said the proposed amendment to the Act was part of the wider reform programme but stressed that any amendment must go through the appropriate legislative process.
He cautioned that efforts to improve procurement efficiency must not weaken accountability, saying the removal of unnecessary delays should not mean the removal of essential safeguards.
He said the government could not independently monitor every procurement transaction and project across the country, just as civil society, the private sector and procurement regulators could not reform the system alone.
He therefore urged CSOs to join the bureau in developing the proposed partnership framework, saying its success should ultimately be measured by the projects improved, waste prevented, transparency created, communities empowered and public value delivered.