BENIN CITY- The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ has called on Civil Society Organizations, CSO’s and Journalists in Edo State to get acquainted with the revised public procurement agency law 2020 to foster proactive engagement in procurement processes and keep watch of how government spend public funds and award contracts, follow up with government expenditure on procurement and reporting.
This call was made by ANEEJ Executive Director, Rev David Ugolor during a stakeholders meeting on the Revised Edo State Public Procurement Agency Law 2020 held in Benin City recently.
According to Rev Ugolor, the bulk of government business is to undertake procurement of goods, services and works and available literatures suggests that corruption within the government circle is mostly connected to public procurement.
“Where CSO’s are not active in the space, a lot of things will go wrong, then we will begin to lament after the deed has been done. It is expected that at the end of the meeting, CSO’s and Journalists in Edo State will have the required knowledge to undertake procurement observation and monitoring in the state and also be able to use the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) portal to monitor government projects and contract.
“As you are already aware ANEEJ is currently implementing the Civil Society Advocacy to Support Anti-corruption and Rule of Law in Nigeria (CASARN) project which is part of the implementation of the Rule of Law and Anti- Corruption (ROLAC) programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by the British Council.
“The goal of the CASRN project is to enhance governance in Nigeria by contributing to the fight against corruption, strengthen rule of law and the protection of human rights by reinforcing prevention mechanisms and enhancing civil society and public engagement,” he noted.
He disclosed that one of the project’s objectives is to support CSO’s and Media advocacy for implementation of Open Government Partnership commitments in Edo State as part of effort to improve oversight, transparency and accountability in the management of resources while also targeting corruption prevention measures.
Rev Ugolor further said that as a follow-up to previous workshops on procurement observation and open contracting to improve stakeholders participation in effort to prevent corruption, this stakeholders meeting on the Revised Edo State Public Procurement Agency Law 2020 was designed to consider the revised Edo State Public Procurement Agency Law 2020 as well as discussing code of conduct for public procurement observers and monitors and the use of the Open Contracting Portal to monitor government contract and projects in Edo State.
“It would be recalled that Edo State government joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2018. The State Action Plan (SAP) has been developed and is still currently before the government for approval, the government committed to the full implementation for Open Contracting as part of effort to reform procurement process. The CASARN project has thus been designed to target some of the issues captured in OGP State Action Plan,” he added.
The State officer for ROLAC Programmes Imonitie Omokhodion Esq commended ANEEJ, the CSO’s and Journalists for joining ROLAC to strengthen mechanisms to fight corruption and Jane Cole- Otoaguah, procurement officer, Edo State Public Procurement Agency and James Owolabi gave an over view of the Revised Edo State Public Procurement Agency Law 2020, Code of Conduct for Public Procurement and the use of the Open Contracting portal to monitor contract award and projects in Edo State.
