President Goodluck Jonathan does not have the political will to fully implement the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007, Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement, Jumoke Okoya-Thomas (ACN, Lagos), has said. He was speaking yesterday at the National Assembly after Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, for the umpteenth time, failed to appear before the committee. ?Selective implementation of laws breeds corruption. The attorney general has deliberately and consistently refused to appear before the committee. It is obvious that they don?t have the political will to implement this clause in the Public Procurement Act. I ruled that we submit our report to the House on Thursday (tomorrow),? she said.
Rep. Patrick Ihariale (PDP, Edo), a member of the committee,� said, the failure of Adoke to appear before the House ?is evidence of bad character?, adding that it was ?deliberate, calculated and very conscious?.
The committee refused to listen to the Solicitor General of the Federation, Abdullahi Ahmed Yola who said he had the mandate of the AGF to speak before the committee.
The House had mandated the committee to invite the Attorney General to hear from him reasons why the government had failed to constitute the National Council on Public Procurement in accordance with the Public Procurement Act but for three times, Adoke had not appeared before them.
On November 29, 2011, the House passed a resolution giving 21 days ultimatum to the President to set up the council, the Senate also did same last week.
Jonathan had hinted last month that he will soon invite experts from the World Bank to vet all federal government contracts, a decision that did not go down well with the lawmakers.
However, in an interview with the Guardian newspaper published recently presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said the procurement council would not be inaugurated because the law subordinates the Federal Executive Council to the National Council on Public Procurement.
?The Office of the President has noted the resolution of the House of Representatives on the imperative of inaugurating the National Council on Procurement. However, the main issue the council has not been inaugurated is not far to seek,? Abati was quoted as saying.
?Government has proposed an amendment to the Public Procurement Act 2007. The reason for this proposed amendment is that there is a contradiction in the law that set up the council that has a member of the Federal Executive Council, the Minister of Finance, as the chairman.
?How can a council, headed by a member of the FEC, be more powerful than the FEC that produces the minster? There is a contradiction there that the proposed amendment seeks to remove for it to be functional.?
Abati said even under the late President Umaru Yar?adua, who signed the procurement law, the council was not inaugurated for three years. ?The reason was the same; the law could not be implemented.?
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