The Ag. Head of Civil Service of the Federation, (Ag HCSF),Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan has charged Permanent Secretaries to be proactive and employ necessary mechanism towards ensuring seamless implementation of the budget of their respective Ministries and sustain the trajectory of the administration’s next level agenda.
Ag HCSF gave this charge in her remarks at the occasion of the 2020 Procurement Retreat organized for newly appointed Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 7th to 8th February, 2020 in Kano, Kano State.
Dr. Yemi-Esan urged Permanent Secretaries to be fully abreast and involved in procurement processes of Agencies under their Ministries, adding that the introduction of the 12month fiscal calendar budget, besides encouraging the tracking of Budget implementation, will also enable the private sector and the country’s development partners to easily align their planned programmes and budget with the Country’s new budget circle among other benefits.
According to her, the 2020 retreat with the theme “Procurement Implementation in the New Budget Cycle’ will enhance better interpretation of our roles as they pertain to proper budgetary and accounting systems for approved internal control, accountability and transparency”.
The Ag HCSF also reiterated the commitment of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation continued collaboration with the Bureau of Public Procurement to sustain and as well as support any laudable initiative that will enhance professionalism and competence of our personnel in Public Procurement.
In his welcome address the Director- General, Bureau of Public Procurement, Mamman Ahmadu, said the event was one of the most important activities of the Bureau because the calibre of officers in attendance constitute the top echelon of the Nation bureaucracy, which is involved in the implementation of the public procurement reform.
He added that, Federal Permanent Secretaries are recognized as Accounting Officers in the Ministries under Section 20, Sub- Section 1 of the Public Procurement Act 2007. This places them at the heart of the procurement process, as they take responsibility for ensuring the compliance of MDAs with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
The Director – General said the unique theme of this year’s retreat was carefully selected to help MDAs proactively re-organize their procurement plans and processes to fit into the new January to December budget cycle.
Mamman Ahmadu listed the objectives of the retreat to include, acquainting participants with contemporary Government policies that have impact on their procurement processes; introduce participants to emerging trends in public procurement in Nigeria; to draw the attention of participants to the role of accounting officers in the procurement value chain; apprise participants on the ongoing amendment of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 and review the performance of MDAs in the 2019 Financial year to identify areas of weaknesses and make the procurement proceedings of 2020 more efficient.
The Director – General expressed the hope that the retreat will inspire great ideas and resolutions on how to successfully implement more efficient, timely, transparent and accountable, value-for -money procurements under the revised January to December budget cycle of 2020.
The annual Federal Permanent Secretaries Retreat is organized by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) in collaboration with the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
This year retreat had in attendance almost all the Permanent Secretaries. The retreat also featured a technical session with some Honourable Ministers on ‘the role of Honourable Ministers in the Procurement process’. The Honourable Ministers are Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Engr. Suleiman Adamu and Dr Osagie Ehanire,
Udoh Imaobong(Mrs.)
For: Director Communications
