FG to ban contractors, consultants not on its database

The warning was handed down yesterday in Abuja by Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, at the 2014 Annual Contractors/ Consultants and Service Providers forum, organised by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
Represented by Mrs Olusola Moore, the minister said failure to register with the National Database contravened the Procurement Act, adding that contractors will not be allowed to operate without registering.
The minister said that companies that failed to submit themselves to registration on the database will be excluded from government contracts and their owners may be jailed.
He explained: “The essence of the provisions of the law highlighted above is to stress the need for relevant stakeholders to get registered under the e-platform in order to guarantee the continued participation of their companies in federal procurement.”
The Public Procurement Act, 2007, required that the BPP should “maintain a National Database of the particulars and classification and categorisations of Federal Contractors and Service Providers and to Prescribe classifications and categorisations for the companies on the register.”
The agency commenced the registration in November 2012.
Data from the BPP obtained by Daily Trust showed that only 1,251 contractors and service providers have registered on the database from the date of deployment to the end of 2013.
In the register, about 127 companies registered under Works, 111 companies regis-tered under Goods while 145 companies registered under Service category.
The remaining 868 companies are yet to complete their registration and, thus, have not chosen their categories or line of business.
Speaking at the forum, the Director General of BPP, Emeka M. Ezeh, said the database was imperative due to the challenges faced in handling the contractors.
He said some contractors were making the contract award processes very difficult by bidding for contracts that they don’t have the capacity to execute. He said some contractors used to give false information in their bidding documents even though they are aware that such acts are punishable offences.
He said the forum was critical in the effort to sanitise the activities of the contractors and service providers and prevent them from making unsolicited mistakes.