Stakeholders on Tuesday lamented the poor condition of procurement agencies across the country.
This was made known at a roundtable on anti-corruption procurement community of practice.
The event was organised by Accountability Lab Nigeria, in collaboration with UNDP Nigeria, Open Contracting Partnership, and Edo, Ekiti, and Plateau State Bureau of Public Procurement.
Speaking on the lapses of procurement agencies, the program officer, OCP, Andidiong Okon explained that the agencies lack working capacities as they are understaffed.
Okon said “There is no adequate funding for procurement agencies. Some do not have the capacity. Take for instance, about 14 people carrying out procurement processes in public procurement agencies in Plateau state.
“So capacity tends to be one of the biggest challenges in procurement agencies across the states.
“In some states, some departments are overburdened with responsibilities.
Another stakeholder from Open Government Partnership Leaders Network, Saied Tafida, noted, “The lack of adequate procurement manual, regulation and other frameworks, lack of unskilled and adequate manpower, the overlap of responsibility between the procurement governing board and the state tenders board culminated with an underfunded Bureau for Public Procurement are all barriers to a strengthened public procurement institution.”
They, therefore, advised government to increase the capacity of the procurement agencies and also train procurement officers to be educated across the different MDAs.
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