The Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Dr. Adebowale A. Adedokun, MCIPS, ACFE, hosted the National President of the Association of Public Procurement Practitioners of Nigeria (APPON), Dr. Emem James Kanico, FCPP, IION and his team in his office in Abuja.
Welcoming the APPON National President, Dr. Adedokun emphasized on his vision to re-strategies the procurement sector, drive efficiency and reinforce the Bureaus’ regulatory mandate of Competition, Transparency and Accountability in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ and his commitment to improve the nation’s economy and better the lives of Nigerians.
In his remarks, Dr. Emem James Kanico, FCPP, IION congratulated Dr. Adebowale on his recent appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR. He applauded the DG’s policies and reforms aim at enhancing procurement efficiency. In addition, the National President of APPON, Dr. Emem James Kanico outlined the challenges encountered by APPPON in the course of discharging their duties such as:
• Quacks and unprofessional Procurement officers in the system.
• Hostile environment factors that hampers public procurement practices.
• Deficiencies in procurement auditing of Agencies.
Dr. Emem advocates support from Director-General, BPP to use his good office to ensure compliance of ethical practice of procurement officers empowered by law, and for Procurement processes to be managed by qualified procurement officers.
He further seeks for mandatory training of procurement practitioners and adequate procurement auditing of MDAs as a preventive measure to deter procurement fraud in the system.
In his response, DG BPP, Dr. Adedokun encouraged APPON, as a professional entity to be competitive and also adhere to the ethical practices of public procurement. Adding that APPON’s credibility is paramount in the field of public procurement hence, the need to set good examples as public procurement professional entity.
The DG BPP, emphasizes on the discontinuation of advertisement vetting by BPP and the need for agencies to present companies with due diligence and up-to-date records; and the efforts to change budget cycle in the sense that all contracts awards plans should be completed within the first quarter of the year.
He urged APPON to adopt good and best procurement practices to enhance procurement governance for the benefits of Nigerians.
Signed
Zira Zakka Nagga
Head of Public Relations (BPP)
