FCTA To Transparently Implement Principles of Procurement Act

…Commends Procurement Practitioners

By: Ugonabo Lorreta

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has restated its commitment to transparently implement the principles of the Public Procurement Act in all its transactions.

Director, Procurement Department, FCTA, Mallam Idris Musa, gave this assurance, while receiving an excellent service award from the APPON delegation, Wednesday in his office, Abuja.

The Director reiterated that the Administration will focus on training and retraining of the Procurement Officers in the Services of the FCT Administration because it will go a long way to improve performance and service delivery.

Musa commended the Association of Public Procurement Practitioners of Nigeria (APPON), and urged it to do more in the aspect of training its members to sharpen their professional skills.

His words: “The Association must strive for excellent performance as its members discharge their official responsibilities towards the sustenance of the public procurement, particularly in the FCTA.”

The Director also commended the Association for a well-organized annual conference held recently in Lagos; assuring that the FCT Administration will continue to promote the wonderful ideal of the Procurement Act in the overall interest of the nation.

He thanked the Association for the award; saying it would spur him to continue to discharge his responsibilities.

According to him, the FCT Department of Procurement will assiduously work to remain a pacesetter in carrying out its duties.

Presenting the award, the National President, of the Association Mr. Emem Kanico, said that the procurement compliance excellence service award given to the FCT Director of Procurement was in recognition and appreciation of his selfless service toward the nation-building as well as his valuable contributions to the development of APPON.

It will be recalled that Mr. Kanico had at the recent, 3rd Annual Conference of the Association appealed to the 10th National Assembly to give swift attention to the Procurement bill currently before it so that the sector could be further strengthened and empowered to reach its full potential.

“APPON is appealing for quick passage of procurement bill, that will make provision for further strength and empowerment to the sector to perform better,” he stressed.

Kanico emphasized that “this will reduce unprofessional practices and in turn usher in an era of transparency and accountability in procurement processes across the country”.

Speaking further, Kanico urged the procurement officers not to relent on being vigilant, building capacity as well as instituting good reforms to change the narrative of the country in the area of procurement.

Meanwhile, the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, who spoke at the recent 3rd Annual Conference of the Association, emphasized the need for a paradigm shift in the way and manner procurement issues are handled.

Danbatta, explained the importance of the theme of the conference which was “implementation of e-procurement in Nigeria”; noting that the establishment of broadband infrastructure would facilitate all the activities of government including e-procurement.

He stated that the federal government’s announcement of a pilot program to switch to an e-procurement platform is to save the nation a significant amount of money that is lost through the implementation of the present public procurement Act, which is paper-dependent.

Highpoint of the 3rd annual conference was the induction and inauguration of new members and also the conferment of awards of different categories to public and private individuals.