Effect of the New Public Procurement Act on Government Purchase in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the study
The then president of Nigeria, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar’Adua signed into law the public Procurement Act (PPA) on the 4th of June 2007 with the aim of addressing the inadequacies of the Procurement Practice In Nigeria by ensuring transparency, competitiveness value for money and professionalism in the public sector/government procurement systems. This project has its objective as:
- Determine the significant effect of professionalism in the public procurement process on government accountability in Nigeria
- Ascertain the significant relationship between transparency in the Public Procurement Process and government accountability in Nigeria
- Establish the impact of competition in the public procurement process on government accountability in Nigeria
- Determine the significant impact of efficiency, value for money in the public procurement process on government accountability
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of Public Procurement
According to the procurement manual, (2009) procurement is a function responsible for obtaining resources (equipment, logistics, materials, supplies and services) required by an organization to fulfill its core business and development programme. This may be done by purchase, lease or other legal means. Uneam and Mark (2019) opine that Public procurement is the process by which government parastatals, departments, ministries and agencies purchase goods and services from the private sector under specific rules and policies. It involves acquiring goods, works and services, from third parties.
Kari, Mona and Jan (2010) states that public procurement is the acquisitions of goods and services by public institutions, and concerns contracts between the government and the private in many different areas such as health services, the military and construction. Public procurement is the acquisition of goods and services or awarding of contracts require by a state to functions properly and meet the need of its citizen. The Nigeria public procurement act (PPA, 2007) was enacted to strengthen the long weaken institution in order to achieve good governance in public procurement as it has been recognized that the weak institutions in addition to corruption are widely accepted as impairment to Nigerian sustainable growth and development (Adewole, 2014).
The public procurement Act serve as a guide to the implementation of any public procurement in Nigeria to ensure true value for money, fairness, transparency, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness. The act is structured into twelve parts and each of the parts is targeted at reducing or eradicating the plague that has eaten deep into the public procurement process in Nigeria. In order to ensure compliance the Act provides in section one of part one for the establishment of the National Council on Public Procurement (NCPP) and section three of part two, establishes the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) as regulatory authorities responsible for oversight, management and monitoring of public procurement practices and system (Adewole, 2014).
The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) is a form of agency that performs regulatory and administrative functions, coordinate, harmonize’ and benchmark prices in Public Procurement processes, undertake research, coordinate institutional capacity, acts as supervisory platform and provides guideline to regulate Public Procurement practices (Jacob, 2010). Essentially, all these are established to create strong institutional framework for public procurement. While the National Council on Public Procurement (NCPP) exerts control over the administration of BPP to ensure that the objectives of the Act are not defeated. Also ensure the development of policies that will drive the entire procurement process in line with statutory provisions, it gives instructions for implementation to the BPP to ensure that it does not wreck from the fundamental principles for procurement, it authorizes contract thresholds and policies on public procurement to ensure and maintain sound procurement process, approve the appointment of the Directors of the Bureau, receive and consider, for approval, the audited accounts of the Bureau of Public Procurement, and approve changes in the procurement process to adapt to improvements in modern technology (Adewole, 2014).
Other relevant features of the act relate to the scope of application, fundamental principles of procurement, organization of procurement and procurement methods. Section 15(1) in part three spell out the scope of application which stipulate that public procurement act shall apply to all procurement of goods, works, and services which is carried out by the federal government procurement entities; and others whose appropriation from the federation is not below thirty percent (30%), (Nwafor, 2013). Procurement excluded from the act involves purchase of special goods, works, and services that have to do with national defense and national security except the approval of the president is implored (Jacob, 2010).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
To provide answers to the research questions and validate the stated hypotheses raised in the introduction section, the study employed the survey research design as the main research instrument through the administration of questionnaires.
Sources of Data
The data for this study were generated from two main sources; Primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources include questionnaire, interviews and observation. The secondary sources include journals, bulletins, textbooks and the internet.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Results
Using both mathematical and statistical techniques this section presents an analysis of the questionnaire administered and retrieved from the respondents, from which our recommendation and conclusion are being drawn. A total of eighty (80) questionnaires were administered to respondents consisting of all the identified stakeholders out of which Fifty-seven (57) were retrieved and used for the analysis thus
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The study examines the effect of the new public procurement act on government purchase in Nigeria. The study reveals that professionalism in the public procurement process has the likelihood of influencing government accountability; transparency in the public procurement process has positive relationship with government accountability but statistically insignificant; Competition in the public procurement process has the likelihood of impacting negatively on government accountability and Efficiency, value for money in the public procurement process has the likelihood of impacting positively on government accountability.
The history and concept of the procurement process and the procurement law (that is, PPA Act 2007) was expatiated on with focus on the challenges, loopholes of the PPA Act 2007 while recommending relevant amendments that can be made to the existing public procurement act to make it more reliable and effective for the procuring and delivering of assets in Nigeria. Some challenges identified included- the challenge of the Federal System of Government, lack of political will to initiate development change, absence of strong and compelling institutions, pervading corruption that has become Nigeria socio-cultural value, citizen’s refusal to demand accountability and participate fully in the political process.
Conclusively, the PPA Act 2007 is a major milestone in the development of a standard and an international recognised procurement process for the country. Provided that the existing challenges and loopholes are evaluated and resolved and the new amendments proposed for this act is looked into, otherwise, the country may not yet enjoy the fully benefit derivable from the enactment of the PPA Act 2007.
Recommendations
In line with the findings, we advance the following recommendations
- Procurement officers in federal parastatals, Ministry, Department and Agencies (MDA) should be hired on the basis of competency and professionalism and not on the basis of nepotism and favoritism as this will enhance and increase the level of government accountability in Nigeria
- Transparency should be encourage in the various stages of the public procurement process starting from invitation to bid, bid security, submission of bids, rejection of bids, to bid opening and awarding of contracts as this will also impact on the level of government accountability in Nigeria
- Competition is another variable that should be monitored closely in the public procurement to ensure that it is fair and transparent. The different contractors should be given free level playing ground and the best should be given or awarded contracts
- Contract should be carried out in such a way that will guarantee efficiency, value for money. Projects should be completed as scheduled and within stipulated cost as this will help to boost the public image on the level of government accountability in Nigeria.
REFERENCES
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- Adewole, A. (2014). Governance reform and the challenge of implementing public procurement law regime across Nigerian state and local governments. International Journal of Public Administration and Management Research, 2(4), 25-32
- Adewole, A. (2014). Governance Reform and the Challenge of Implementing Public Procurement Law Regime across Nigerian State and Local Governments. International Journal of Public Administration and Management Research (IJPAMR), 2(4), 25–32. Retrieved from http://www.eajournals.org/wpcontent/uploads/Governance-Reform-and-Public-Procurement-Law-Regime-in-Nigerian-FederatingStates-A-Case-Study-of-Oyo-State1.pdf
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