Kogi State government has charged civil society organizations, media men and other stakeholders to help its procurement processes by promoting ‘open contracting system’.
Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Dr Stella Adejoh, gave the charge in Lokoja during a two-day open contracting stakeholder engagement organised in collaboration with Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) on Wednesday.
She disclosed that the state has trained and posted 34 civil servants to Ministries, Department and Agencies as procurement officers to strengthen the state’s procurement processes.
Adejoh explained that open contracting system entails “the way Government’s expenditures or finances are disbursed to contractors for execution of projects”.
The Director-General commended Gov. Yahaya Bello for his political will to ensure the commencement of the open contracting system in the state.
“Developing a system with open contracting system would help improve public service integrity and build trust in government.
“If fully in operation, open contracting would reduce corruption, brings transparency to bear in project’s execution and it will also allow individuals to get engage in projects and working of government’s contracts,” she said.
Adejoh further lauded the governor for bringing to bear, transparency and accountability, while urging the citizens of the state to get involved in governance and be on the look out for any government’s projects in their environment.
Also speaking, Mr Kehinde Oloruntoba, the State Commissioner for Agriculture, said that the training and sensitization program was coming at a better time.
He lamented that the state is always in the news for negative reasons, attributing this to inadequate information about government efforts in ensuring development.
Speaking on behalf of the Civil Society Organizations, Miss Ifeoma Onyebuchi, expressed optimism that the government’s keen interest in signing into open contracting would be sustained.
She urged for more collaboration between the government and the CSOs to enable them to have enough information about government projects, contract and funding mechanism.
In his paper presentation titled “Introduction to open contracting and benefits of open contracting”, Mr Adekunle Adelowo, stressed that open contracting would help in delivering value for money.
