Yemisi Izuora
Managing Director of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), Mr Babs Omotowa,has sought for a realistic and effective procurement system which he said would help to restore confidence in the energy sector and indeed the nation’s economic environment.
Omotowa while addressing the company’s Contract and Procurement Conference in Lagos explained that with efficient procurement public confidence would be restored in governance and will make possible the private sector to develop
He said through efficient procurement system,his company recently utilized a $1.6bln ship building contract with Samsung and Hyundai to deepen local capacity through training of 600 Nigerians in Korea and Nigeria in shipbuilding and facilitation of export of $20m ‘made in Nigeria’ goods to Korea for use on the vessel e.g. cables, paints, furniture, anodes, etc.
According to him, $10m simulators were also obtained from Samsung and Hyundai being installed in Bonny to enable many more operators and regulators be trained than sending a few overseas .
He pointed out that the UK Government’s Efficiency program saved GBP14bln in a year through centralization, eliminating inefficiency, digitization and moving online as embedded in its public procurement policy.
He said:’’Nigeria has moved forward positively in this direction too with the set up and good work being done by the bureau of public procurement. Due processes, transparency, benchmarking database, e-procurement, etc are indeed the right direction. These should be built upon, and also many more states should join the likes of Lagos and Rivers States, in setting up similar bureau at State levels.
‘’We should also start to transparently see the comparative cost of providing similar service between Federal and States and across different States. Such open benchmarking will also help to drive for lower costs’’.
He commended the new government in the country for its willingness to implement the provisions of the Public Procurement Act of 2007, and set up the National Council of Procurement is a welcome development.
He explained that the Procurement Council will be an enabler to deepen procurement standards and deploy best practices in the country. It is of utmostimportance that membership of the Council shouldalso include seasoned and experienced Procurement professionals so as to enhance its effectiveness.
He said:’’Procurement decisions that have been made at Federal and State levels in the past five decades have been a key part of why our country is in the current precarious place. Whilst our economy grew by over 6% in recent times and became the biggest in Africa, our processes remain anachronistic and performance bedeviled by corruption. Our challenge is not really about the magnitude of these problems, but rather the smallness of our effort.
‘’These are demonstrated by the don’t-rock-the-boat attitude, compatriots waiting for their own turn in the murky waters, and the seeming lip service to the efforts required leveling our mountains of corruption. Clearly we need an attitude change’’