By Yahaya Umar
Bureau of Public Procurement ,BPP, says digitalisation across all economic sectors is essential, as IT plays a crucial role in combating corruption and driving the country’s advancement and transformation.
This is contained in a statement issued by Zira Nagga, Head, Public Relations, BPP, in Abuja yesterday.
The statement said Dr Adebowale Adedokun, the Director-General ,D-G, BPP, made this known while receiving a delegation from the National Information and Technology Development Agency ,NITDA, in his office in Abuja.
It said the visit was aimed at deepening the relationship between the two agencies.
Adedokun, who described the NITDA visit as a welcome development, said it would pave the way for ensuring standards and compliance were met in the procurement of IT-related projects.
The D-G emphasised the importance of digitising procurement processes and IT-related projects, which helped reduce turnaround time, curb corruption, and prevent the duplication of IT-related projects.
He said the BPP and NITDA haf to take ownership of the process, as both agencies have a responsibility under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to reduce wastage for the country’s progress.
Adebowale reiterated the need to bring on board the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Auditor-General for the Federation, and anti-corruption agencies to monitor the implementation of procurement activities and investigate any fraudulent activity.
He called for a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding ,MOU, between BPP and NITDA to strengthen their long standing relationship in the areas of professionalisation through capacity building.
Other areas he said include having a competent ICT and procurement sector; standardisation of procurement documents and IT price Intelligence, for benchmarking in all IT-related projects.
Adebowale suggested that NITDA should automate procurement processes by extending the portal to BPP for information and feedback.
“BPP should also be part of the project design for certification purposes, and the process of including lawyers from the ministries to be groomed on IT-related activities for legal purposes”, he said.
Dr Kasinfu Abdullahi, the D-G/CEO, NITDA, stated that his visit aimed to explore ways to enhance collaboration with BPP, particularly regarding digitalisation, due to the crucial role of IT in all aspects of the nation.
Abdullahi reiterated the need for transformation, reforms and improving governance for effective service delivery, which he said was paramount in the Tinubu-led administration.
He said that NITDA had decided to review the IT Clearance Guidelines to ensure transparency and accountability of MDAs-designed projects.
“ To address the implementation of the guideline, there is a need to build the National E-Government Master Plan and the Nigeria Government Enterprise Architecture, an IT system to deliver seamless services to citizens. “It will be a digitised government service for integration.
Abdullahi said that NITDA was proposing three stages for IT guidelines, which include Solution Design for certification purposes and Implementation, by building cyber security certification and network security.
“Also, Quality Assurance, whereby the expectation of the desired project should be met before payment,” he said.
The statement said both agencies agreed to set up a team to work together towards the signing of the MoU, as the visit underscored shared commitment to curb corruption and reduce wastage.