By Festus Fifen

In order to have a more transparent and seamless public procurement system in the country , The Federal Executive Council Meeting on Wednesday set up a committee to review the public procurement act for effectiveness.

While briefing Statehouse Corespondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday presided over by President Bola Tinubu, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning Abubakar Bagudu said this is inline with the desire to enhance fiscal discipline

In his words, ” President Bola Tinubu in line with the desire to enhance more fiscal discipline and further demonstrate to Nigerians our commitment to serving them better, raised the issue of the reconciliation between the appropriation act, public procurement law and the fiscal responsibility act. FEC has set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to review the public procurement act.

” However, after a robust discussion the president directed that all ministries department and agencies should review their intended procurement as provided for in the appropriation such that where there are gaps between appropriated sums and sums required to execute the projects, that can be brought to the attention of both the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and Federal Ministry of Finance, such that the memo that the cabinet secretariat will provide to the FEC, will have clarity of where funding is expected to come from and recommendation so as to guide effectively the Federal Executive Council decision.

“Mr. President, directed that the report of the public procurement committee be provided to him so that can take decisions accordingly.”

Reemphasize the need for the public procurement committee, the Minister of Information and National Orientation Mohammad Idris said ” There is also a discussion around the National Council on Procurement. The Federal Executive Council is looking at that again. Recall that in the last 17 years, National Council on Procurement has not really been very effective. So Mr. President has submitted to the National Assembly a bill, which in fact has scaled through the first reading at the House of Representatives.

” The whole idea is to ensure that we have a robust National Council on Procurement that will continue to look at all aspects of procurement, in line with the vision and to bring every project into the financial discipline that Mr. President is always talking about.”