The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) on Wednesday urged Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of governments to enforce Procurement law and sanction violators for national growth and development.
Mr Emmanuel Akinwole, the immediate past National Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (NIEEE) gave the advice while delivering a public lecture at the General Meeting of the NSE, Lagos Branch.
The lecture was titled, `Procurement in Nigeria: Law and Practice’.
Akinwole, a member of the branch said: “The message we have for the government is to ensure that all arms of government and MDAs are encouraged to obey and follow the law of the land as regards procurement.
“Also, engineers and other professionals in procurement should be properly educated as we are doing for our members today. We must teach them the rules, regulations, the processes and the procedures in Procurement Act.
“The laws are there; the sanctions are there; they should just be applied and enforced. Sanctions for disobedience and non-compliance must be enforced to bring sanity and progress to our nation,”
According to him, proper procurement guarantees competitive, quality and cost effective project which every citizen and government needs.
The engineer, who noted that there were lacunas in the procurement law, commended the National Assembly for steps being taken to amend the law for the greater benefits of the people and the nation.
“A law that has been in existence from 2007, about 13 years ago, needs to be reviewed and currently there is an amendment before the National Assembly on all the loopholes based on use over the years.
“We believe this will better the lot of professionals and practitioners in procurement,” Akinwole said.
He urged the National Assembly to ensure adequate consultation with relevant professionals in carrying out the amendment to obtain their full experience and expertise for a good law to emerge.
On increase in abandoned government projects, the expert said that most projects were started without warehousing the funds.
Akinwole said: “The basic rule of procurement is that before you start a project, you must make sure the money is warehoused and ready.
“Most times, the money is not there and the project is started. Most MDAs are caught up in this.
“Until this is changed, there will be abandoned projects.
“That is why most MDAs normally have problems compared to private organisations, which normally obey the rules more.”
The engineer urged young engineers to get trained on procurement.
Akinwole noted that the Nigerian Institute of Procurement Engineers is an arm of the NSE where interested engineers got trained on procurement.
In his remark, Dr Musliudeen Agoro, the Chairman of NSE, Lagos Branch, suggested that engineers should be involved in procurement, hence the need to be alive to their responsibilities.
On cases of building collapse, Agoro commended the Lagos State Government for efforts in stemming the tide.
He attributed the cause to the use of unqualified engineers, lack of supervision, substandard materials, inadequate funding, among others.
The meeting was held at Oyebolu Engineering Resource Centre, Works and Physical Planning Department, University of Lagos. Akoka
