…propose 2 years jail term for erring contractor
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved the increase in the payment of mobilisation fee to supplier/contractors from 15 percent to 30 percent, as part of efforts geared toward fast-tracking completion of all developmental projects across the country.
As contained in the new amendment to section 35 of the of the Nigeria’s Public Procurement Act, “any person or authority who accesses mobilization fee and absconds or does not carry out the services or works commesurate to the fee paid shall be guilty of an offence and punishable with two years imprisonment or a fine equivalent to the fee paid or both.”
These were part of the adopted recommendations of the Committee on Public Procurement on a bill for an Act to amend the Public Procurement Act, 2007, which scaled through third reading on the floor of the House.
In his remarks, Speaker Yakubu Dogara noted that the increase in the mobilisation fee became necessary “especially where the contract has some kind of offshore elements and in this era of exchange rate volatility, you may have to pay quickly for those components that are sourced offshore to ensure that they are quickly procured before the value of the money goes up.”
Dogara noted that two landmark bills were passed this week in line with the nation’s efforts to sanitise its business environment and improve the ease of doing business.
Likewise, section 25(3) of the law reduced the time provided in the bill for emergency procurement activity to ensure timely execution but “the procurement entity acting with respect to paragraph (i) of this section shall notify the Bureau within 7 days of such action.”
He observed that bill further seeks to sanitise Nigeria’s business environment and improve the ease of doing business in the country by ensuring that Nigeria has value for money by ensuring smoother implementation of national budgets as passed by the National Assembly.
“The amendment also seeks to shorten the procurement time by the Bureau of Public Procurement on procuring entities.
“Right now, you will find that if you commence procurement activities, it lasts for not less than four months and then we feel that that is very restrictive and will not serve the needed planning and implementation of projects that deal on national priorities,” Dogara explained.
To cure the lacuna in the previous Act and the arms deal scandal, the new amendment in section 15(2), stipulated that procurement process shall “apply to the procurement of special goods, works and services involving defence or national secutiy,” in line with section 81(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The new amendment which removed the Minister of Finance as chairman of the National Council on Public Procurement and replacing him/her with a person to be appointed by the President, however included representatives of Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors and Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management as members of the Council.
Similarly, the new law provides for the establishment of Parastatal Tenders Board in each federal ministry, extra-ministerial department and all agencies of government.
In an effort to increase public access to procurement activities, the House bill introduced a new section 5(f) which mandates the Bureau to “publish the details of all contracts in the procurement journal, any other national newspapers and in their official website; while subsection (h) states that the Bureau shall maintain a national database of the particulars, classification, and categorisation of federal contractors, suppliers, consultants and service providers.”
A new subsection (e) was added to section 4 of the extant Act in order to promote the patronage of local contractors by all agencies of government which mandates the Bureau to “promote local content and industry in the execution of any project in Nigeria.”
In the same vein, section 1(2) expands membership of the National Council on Procurement by including the Minister of Budget and National Planning and eight part-time members to represent the Chattered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria and Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors among others.
To this end, Dogara urged President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the bill as soon as it is transmitted to him.
“This is what the National Assembly seeks to achieve and we hope that as soon as this is transmitted to the President for assent, he will quickly assent to it,” Dogara said.
