Anambra State Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) on Tuesday said it was recording 100 percent compliance to the 2020 procurement act.
Managing Director, State Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Arch. Okey Ezeobi disclosed this on Tuesday in Awka during a press briefing ahead of a 6-Day Capacity Building Series on Theory and Practice of Public Procurement for Local Government Stakeholders.
The training was organized by the BPP in collaboration with Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs.
Ezeobi however said the level of compliance at the local government was not encouraging, hence the reason for the training for both the chairmen and those in the procurement corridor.
He said, “The capacity building series was targeted at entrenching accountability and transparency in utilization of public funds in the state in line with Soludo’s vision to ensure adequate value for money.
“The new direction and disruptive change of Soludo’s government is one that will build back public trust as the people are now made to know how their resources are spent.
“Procurement is a process that must reflect transparency. As public officials, the Local Government leadership must be accountable in their handling of public funds.”
Expressing satisfaction with significant improvement in its procurement process, the BPP boss disclosed plans to co-opt staff of the LGAs to BPP on secondment to enable them get the requisite training on procurement.
He added, “The Federal Government had earmarked about 16 framework states to train their officials on procurement process. Unfortunately, many of these states are not up and doing, with so much irregularities in the way things are done.
“But they observed that Anambra’s website has been active with relevant information and they said they want to work with Anambra State.
“That’s why the World Bank was at the State Investment Summit held recently in the State Capital.
“It is this same transparency that Mr Governor has engendered in the state governance that we want to deepen at the Local Government level.
“The entire Anambra State procurement process must be well-defined so that the ordinary Anambra person would know that the taxes collected from them are being deployed appropriately.
Ezeobi insisted that Governor Soludo is not like the regular governments, where the governor is thinking about himself and the his government alone, but a leader who wants to change the system to begin to work for the people.
“The governor has said his government is bringing about disruptive change that will ensure that value for money is being achieved. That’s is why we have a lot of development activities going on in the state, despite the meagre allocation the state is getting from the Federal Government.
“The governor wants to introduce a system of governance like no other. At the State Investment Summit, the Governor made it clear, the direction he wants to go, which is to run a transparent and accountable system of government.
“The essence of the training is for the TC Chairmen to replicate what the governor is doing at the state level to the local governments.
“Procurement is a set of legal procedures. They are going to set a date to the commencement of the process and everyone who should take a dime of the state government, must be tax compliant,” he added.
