BPP to end physical bidding for govt contracts
The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) is set to move federal government bidding fully online, with contractors and consultants to submit bids and proposals electronically without physical interaction with officials.
The BPP Director General, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the Bureau’s strategic engagement with professional bodies on public procurement reforms.
He said the electronic government procurement system being developed by the Bureau would eliminate physical submission of bids and reduce human intervention in the procurement process.
“Your bid, your proposition, you submit them, they also submit it to BPP online. We don’t need to see anybody. Let your documents speak for you,” Adedokun said.
He said the system would also prevent procuring entities from selecting contractors based on personal preferences, adding that bidders would have to prove their capacity through the platform.
“You have to go to the system and prove your worth,” he said.
Adedokun said the Bureau was working to issue approvals and procurement documents digitally, with the target of making them available within seconds.
“We’ll digitalise our certificate, if we approve you now, you should get it in the next 30 seconds. Not one week. Not two weeks. Not three days. It should be instant,” he said.
He said procurement submissions from the Federal Ministry of Education and federal universities were already being processed digitally through the PCOMS platform.
The BPP boss also disclosed plans for electronic auditing of government agencies, saying procurement documents would be submitted online and reviewed digitally, with physical intervention only where red flags were identified.
“Right now, we audit randomly. Then we have lost information. Some projects are not started. But because we didn’t audit all content at the inception, the government is securing it. So this is what this solution is deriving at,” he said.
Adedokun said the Bureau was also introducing online community based procurement for eligible projects valued at up to N30 million, allowing businesses within the local government where a project is located to apply electronically.
He said the reforms were part of efforts to reduce delays and improve competition and accountability in public procurement.
Adedokun linked the reforms to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s $1 trillion economy target, saying procurement could not be managed effectively without professional bodies and other stakeholders working together.
He said procurement must support local businesses, create jobs and stimulate innovation as part of the effort to grow the economy.
The President of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Aminu Mohammed Bashir, said professional bodies would collaborate with the BPP on the reforms.
Bashir said procurement required the participation of architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, builders and other professionals.
to like, bookmark, and comment.
Comments
Join the conversation:
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.