It is imperative on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to review the contracts approved in the dying days of the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan, the Bureau of Public Procurement has said.
BPP had reportedly issued Certificate of No Objection for the award of contracts totalling about N190bn towards the end of the former administration on May 29.
In an interview with our correspondent, Head of Media at BPP, Mr. Thomas Odemwingie, said as much as there was nothing wrong with awarding a contract at any time by any administration, there were two grounds for the review of the contracts.
According to him, the new administration needs to review the contracts to know if there are sufficient funds to execute them and to determine whether they would be to the benefit of the people.
Odemwingie said it was the result of the review of the contracts along these factors that should determine whether the contracts should be executed or suspended.
He described the issuance of Certificate of No Objection as an administrative process that does not amount to award of contract or to approval of contracts.
The BPP Spokesman said, “BPP’s role is administrative. It is the Ministries, Departments and Agencies that award contracts. They are the procuring agencies. They send requests to us for the award of contracts.
“The present government has to review whether the contracts are good for the people and whether they have sufficient funds to go ahead with the contracts.
“Government is a continuum. Ministers are gone but the permanent secretaries who are the chief accounting officers of the ministries are there. They are also the symbols of continuity in government.
“Those contracts you are talking about may appear to have been rushed but some were approved up to ten years ago. Some were approved by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and some by the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua.”
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