The Rivers State Bureau on Public Procurement on Tuesday commenced a workshop for key officers in the 23 Local Government Areas of the State with the theme “Fundamentals of The Public Procurement Law And Its Implementation”.
In his presentation, one of the resource persons, Mr. Konipirim Tom-George, told the participants that the Public Procurement Law is segmented into policy, legal and organizational frame work.
Mr. Tom-George emphasized that the principles of due process such as transparency, fairness competition/economy, accountability etc. must be followed in procurement and disposal of public assets.
He added that a person engaged in procurement offences such as collusive agreement, attempt to procurement fraud, influencing the procurement process, splitting of tenders, bid rigging alteration of procurement document upon conviction in court faces two years imprisonment or 200,000 naira fine.
In his presentation, Mr. KelachiKejeh listed open competitive bidding, two stage rendering, restrictive rendering, request for quotation, direct equation and emergency procurement as types of procurement.
Speaking on the sidelines, the Director General of the agency, Mr. Igonibo Thompson told journalists that the workshop is a routine exercise which the Bureau have been doing for the past four years. According to him, the workshop is a requisite of the law that will ensure procurement agencies and entities deliver on the purpose for which they were put in place.
Mr. Thompson explained that it is a forum to share some of the gains and challenges the procurement agencies face in trying to comply with the law.
The DG also disclosed that the Bureau encourages procurement entities to ensure due diligence is carried out on the contractors or whomever they are procuring.
Mr. Thompson further disclosed that the procuring entities are encouraged to do pre-qualification which has helped in eliminating abandonment project in the state.
The workshop which continues till next week drew participants from the 23 local government areas even as many who spoke to our reporter commended the DG of the Bureau for organizing the event, adding that the knowledge acquired in the workshop will be put to practical use in their LGAs.
