The Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, said its intervention in the procurement exercise had saved N530 billion from dubious procurement by contractors.
The BPP Director-General, Emeka Eze, disclosed this while speaking with journalists at the Presidential Villa, adding that through the intervention of the bureau, the government had been able to check inflated contracts.
The Public Procurement Act 2007 established the BPP as the regulatory authority responsible for the monitoring and oversight of public procurement, harmonising the existing government policies and practices by regulating, setting standards and developing the legal framework and professional capacity for public procurement.
Eze, who expressed concern at the rate which contractors defraud the government, said "we must continue to tell Nigerians about the need to have character.
There is no way one person, no matter who he is, can do the nation building alone. "If I send you on a job to say this contract has been done now and you have a specification and somebody receiving salary has a responsibility to certify it and the person does the wrong thing, then there is something wrong with us as a people".
The DG said Nigerians must learn to follow the rules for things to run smoothly in the country. According to him, the procurement process takes the form of making sure that all the projects are appropriated for in the budget. He noted that in November last year, President Goodluck Jonathan "ordered that circulars be issued for procurement process for 2013.
I have a copy of that circular, ordering all the MDAs to start the procurement process". Eze, who also spoke on the high cost of doing government project in the country, expressed concern over the attitude of some Nigerians.
He said:
"Nigerians believe in speculations, and we are so negative about ourselves that even when I tell them that my name is Emeka Eze, they would still not believe me.
"That is so bad about this country; that people choose to believe the negative than believe the truth. Even when Nigeria won the cup in South Africa they said Nigeria did not win".
