By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
Participants of the town hall meeting in Bauchi under the tutelage of Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) rose up from their two-day discussions at the weekend with the resolve to strengthen participation in governance through budgetary and procurement processes of the state.
The participants during the meeting extensively discussed on ways and means they can come together to address issues that have direct bearing with the procurement system of Bauchi state.
The meeting guided by CITAD program coordinator, Isa Garba and some centre facilitators noted that budget of any state cannot be effectively implemented without a procurement process, hence the need for CSOs to engage segments of government in budgetary process to raise the level of procurement.
Participants while arguing that civil societies are the eyes of the society, observed that the moment common man understand the governance processes, they would fight those in government over their doings, making them to act appropriately and effectively.
They also spoke of the need for the civil societies to fully engage the common man in the grassroots understand the procurement process with a view to contribute his/her quota in strengthening the procurement process while ensuring value for money, efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability to positively propel governance.
Participants also noted with delight that governments at all levels globally have enacted the laws with Nigeria started studying the procurement process around the year 2000, and subsequently after rigorous research came the support from the World Bank to ensure the existence of procurement that would guide procurement process in the states of the country.
“This led to the enactment of procurement law in Nigeria in 2007 with Bauchi becoming the first state to domesticate it, though it was then a mere ritual of dancing to the tune of the Federal Government because when CITAD engaged Bauchi State House of Assembly, it came to realized that some social components of the law are only peculiar to the federal government”.
The meeting however observed that after drawing the attention of Bauchi state to those flawed components of the law, came reviews which culminated to the establishment of a bureau as Bauchi State Price Intelligence and Public Procurement Responsibility Unit which is still in existence in the state.
The resolutions of the meeting signed by CITAD workshop facilitators similarly noted with delight that Bauchi is the only state with latest review in 2020 of the Public Procurement Law in the country, and urged other states in the federation to emulate to ensure effective and efficient implementation of the law. The state has therefore the latest reviewed public procurement law in N9geria.
It however noted with concern that citizens of the state are not fully benefitting from the law, “Even if they were indirectly benefitting from it, they are not participating in ensuring that this law is fully followed in the procurement process of the state”.
“This law is to the advantage of the citizens of Bauchi state. Nobody will benefit from this law more than the citizens of the state, as the town hall meeting was held to acquaint participants drawn from civil society organizations (CSOs) and the media about the procurement law”.
