Third from left, the Provost, Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), Professor Olatunde Babawale with other management staff of the Academy at the opening formalities
By Anthony Maliki, Samuel Torlumun, Keffi
Nigeria is losing a whopping N300billion annually for failure to establish the National Procurement Council by successive government as required in the Public Procurement Act of 2007.
The position is by the Japanese Institute of Forensic and Fraud Examiners on Nigeria.
The Provost, Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), Professor Olatunde Babawale made the remark Tuesday at the opening address at the three-day training on “Combating corruption in public procurement” for staff of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) at the Academy in Keffi.
According to him, the huge lose tells how important procurement is to a country stressing that when a regulating agency or institution that is meant to standardize the cost of procurement is left unattended to or being non-existence, a doldrum to massive corruption is open.
Cross section of participants at the workshop
Professor Babawale told participants that to minimize corruption in work and business places there was need to take concrete steps on the issue of procurement.
He noted that this can be done by instituting competitive bidding through economies of scale, promoting efficiency in procurement and also ensuring that with every procurement government gets value.
The provost expressed concern that procurement has been a very sour point in discussions around the issue of corruption in the public service and part of the reasons to train people on how to watch out for the red flags.
He noted that devastation effect of corruption on any nation have become common knowledge retarding meaningful economic growth and development and restricts access of people to social and infrastructural amenities.
Among topics to be discussed are: “Eradicating corruption in the workplace: A behavioural change approach”, “Overview of the public procurement process and Public Procurement Act 2007”, “Contract process: Bidding, evaluation, negotiation and award”, “Avoiding project abandonment in the procurement circle”, “Managing corruption risks in public procurement”, “Corruption practices in public procurement: A case study,” and “Gifts and hospitality: Avoiding the snare.”
