Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative (PRADIN) has said that over $16 billion of the country’s resources has been lost through corruption and abandoned projects. It added that procurement fraud accounted for 70 per cent of total corruption in the public sector. The advocacy group said in a report that regardless of the huge investments and resources in the fight against corruption, human and materials over the years, wastage and corruption were increasing in high places.
It urged the Federal Government to appoint and inaugurate the National Council for Public Procurement as enshrined in Part 1, Section of the PPA 2007. The group also identified challenges confronting the administration of effective and efficient procurement process in the country, explaining that the challenges were largely responsible for the high level of corruption. and the unproductive nature of the BPP.
The National Coordinator of PRADIN, Mohammed Bougei Attah, revealed these in an interactive session between civil society organisations and the media in Abuja. The event was organised to support government’s efforts in the fight against corruption by way of providing insights into the challenges and way forward as it relates to procurement management and administration in Nigeria annually.
The national coordinator noted: “The Public Procurement Act is not helping the Commission in the fight against corruption.” Attah identified the challenges facing the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) as including lack of capacity and the disobedience to the rule of law and failure on the part of the Federal Government to constitute and inaugurate the National Council for Public Procurement as enshrined in Part 1, Section of the PPA 2007.