State2State: CSJ Organises Workshop on Public Procurement for CSOs In Gombe

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has organised a workshop for more than forty civil society organisations (CSOs) in Gombe State on best practises in public sector procurement.

The training 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.

At the training, the Lead Director of CSJ, Eze Onyekpere said that governments all over the world use public procurement policy and implementation mechanisms to address a number of issues including budget implementation, service delivery, social, economic, environmental, human rights and developmental concerns.

“It can be stated as a basic aphorism that the level of economic growth and development in any society is directly related and proportional to the maturity of its procurement policy and how the policy responds to the challenges facing the society,” he added.

Delivering an address, the Director General of the BPP in Gombe State, Babayola Mohammed Isa, said that the agency regulates, monitors, evaluates and audits procurement processes in the state to ensure fairness, transparency and value for money in government business.

“The Bureau for Public Procurement in Gombe State was established by an executive order in 2008. The Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya upon assuming office in May 2019 ensured that the state had a procurement in tandem with international best practises,” he said.

Following this, the Gombe State BPP bill was passed by the state assembly and signed into law on 30th December 2019.

Law empowers the bureau with regulatory and project monitoring functions. It also certifies project quality and standards before disbursement can be made to contractors.

Isa explained that the bureau keeps a registration data of contractors and contracts executed by all government ministries, departments and agencies.

The participants were grateful for the knowledge impacted on them while expressing their gratitude.

“We’ve really learnt a lot. Most of us sitting were saying this is what we were expecting, and the expectations were not cut short. We are happy that we’ve learnt a lot and we look forward to the coming mentoring sessions for us to also improve on what we have been taught,” Delilah Ibrahim Jalo of Redox Carisah said.

Earlier, Mohammed Bello, the Team Lead, State2State in Gombe State has encouraged participants at the workshop to follow up on the practical lessons taught at the meeting to scale up transparency and accountability in the state’s public finance management.

“It is important that we follow up on what we have been taught. You have left all other engagements and came here for the past three days, let’s put what we’ve learnt into action.

“Little drops make up the ocean. Don’t underrate the impact you’re going to be making by stepping to effect changes in your little corner. Form coalitions, report back to us and if you have challenges, we help you overcome them. We will always be there to give guidance where necessary,” he said.