CSOs in Akwa Ibom State Demand Consensus Representation in State’s BPP Council

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Akwa Ibom State have called on the state government to ensure that members appointed into the state’s council on Public Procurement are consensus representatives of the group.   

This was disclosed at a three-day capacity building workshop for CSOs in the state organized by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) under the USAID-funded State2State project.  

The workshop is part of the public procurement component of the Nigeria State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness (State2State) to strengthen governance structures in six states in Nigeria to improve their ability to plan and budget, raise revenues, increase civil society participation, and oversee service delivery in the health; education; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors. 

One of the CSO participants at the workshop, Harrison Udim Sunday asked a question about how the state’s council on public procurement is formed which is provided for in section 14 of the Bureau of Public Procurement Law of Akwa Ibom which states the members that form the council. 

Ekemini Simon, a media participant, pointed out that the media was not also represented in council. 

Participants noted that the representatives of CSOs in the council were not selected by a general consensus.  

The State Council on Public Procurement is the governing body on issues relating to public procurement in Akwa Ibom State. It is a high-level organ with approval powers on issues relating to the administration and management of public procurement under the Public Procurement law. 

The Council as part of its functions considers, approves and amends the monetary and prior review thresholds for the application of the provisions of the law by procuring entities. It also considers and approves policies on public procurement and approves the appointment of Directors of the Bureau among other functions.  

It was identified that some of the problems existing for which the public procurement legislations were made included that oversight, policy reviews, popular participation and transparency mechanisms were lacking, procurement was an all-comers affair as technical and financial qualifications were hardly applied while corruption was the order of the day.