Reps probe BPP over ‘indiscriminate’ issuance of ‘certificate of no objection’

The House of Representatives on Wednesday resolved to probe the alleged indiscriminate issuance of a certificate of no objections by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and noncompliance with the post-procurement audit.

The House mandated its Committee on Public Procurement to carry out the probe with a directive to also consider the biannual reports submitted by the Bureau in the last six years and make their findings known to the public.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Rep Peter Akpanke on the “Need to investigate the indiscriminate issuance of “certificate of no objection by the BPP.

He informed the House that by the provisions of Sections 6(1)(c) and 16(1)(b) of the Public Procurement Act 2007, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) is authorised to issue a certificate of no objection to contracts awarded by relevant procurement entity.

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He also noted that the powers vested in the Bureau of Public Procurement are aimed at ensuring that the letters and spirit of the Public Procurement Act are complied with the government gets value for money and contracts awarded are within relevant thresholds backed by budgetary allocation

He said the Bureau has “Consistently engaged in underhand dealings in the grant of “certificate of no objection”, thus abusing the power to make pecuniary gains and increasing incidences of abandoned and failed projects across the country.

Akpanke  observed that such gross abuses and violation of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 has been “Exasperated by the recent increase in arbitrary nomination to procuring entities of winners for tendering processes and where the procuring entity declines, the process is interjected and frustrated in bad faith and for flimsy reasons.”

Akpanke also said the BPP has failed to comply with the mandatory post–procurement audit as required by Section 5(p) of the Public Procurement Act 2007.

He expressed worries that if urgent steps are not taken to investigate the allegations and address any proven infractions, “The Bureau of Public Procurement is likely to transform itself from a regulator to a disruptor and eventually endanger the entire public procurement system.”

The committee is to submit its report within six weeks.