University of Botswana Law Journal - PULP

PROCUREMENT LAW IN NIGERIA 133
provides for the establishment of the National Council on Public Procurement
(NCPP) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) as regulatory authorities
responsible for oversight, management and monitoring of public procurement
practices and system. Though the new legal regime takes effect immediately
as it should, we observe lack of total commitment on the path of the federal
government to fully comply with the regulations enshrined in the Act. The
problem lies with the issue of government involvement, whether they
[government functionaries] should disengage from procurement process or
not is an underlying question the government is not comfortable with. The
argument of the government functionaries is that they must be involved in the
procurement process in order to safeguard public resources 5 but the report of
the World Bank nullified this argument:
“Politicians in Nigeria would argue that it is their responsibility to
safeguard public resources by ensuring that corruption is minimised
in the procurement process. However, what is most critical is to
build legitimacy in the procurement process through appropriate
legislation and regulations and not direct involvement in the
procurement process. This legitimacy is very important for both
civil servants and the politicians because they, in the end, need to be
able to work in a system where the public has faith in what is going
on and where they can account for their dispositions.”
As of today, the greatest challenge for the enforcement of
procurement law in Nigeria is the involvement of the government
functionaries in the procurement process and this is possible because the
government has not fully implemented the provisions of the Act. Should the
government who initiated the enactment of the Act fail to fully implement it?
That lackadaisical move on the part of the government is worrisome but not
unpredictable. A clue to the reason behind their conduct could be deduced
from the history of the PPA itself. It takes the government almost seven years
to enact this law.
This writer finds out that partial implementation or dragging of feet
in enacting the law is actuated by the desire of the political class in the
government not to lose the means to award contracts to their cronies. This
article discusses the challenge for the attainment of the lofty objectives of the
PPA. It observes with chagrin that three years since the Act has taken effect,
the Federal Government has not fully implemented it. The implications of that
partial implementation of the Act are examined and recommendations offered.
This article is divided in to eight parts. The first part is an
introduction while the second part examines the statutory objectives of the
5 See World Bank report volume 2 page 39 supra note1.