President Jonathan is seeking to take over chairmanship of the procurement council from the Finance minister and to curb powers of ministerial tenders boards over contract awards, according to details of a new bill seen by Daily Trust.
The bill seeks to amend the Public Procurement Act which vests powers over government contracts in the National Council on Public Procurement to be chaired by the Finance Minister.
Based on the changes proposed by Jonathan, the President will assume chairmanship of the council and also have prerogative to approve contract mobilization fees above 15 per cent.
A new insertion under Section 35 of the law sets out strict control over payment of mobilization fees thus: “provided that all payments of mobilization fees in excess of 15 per cent must first be approved by the President.”
Powers of contract approvals within certain thresholds will still reside in the ministerial and parastatal tenders boards under the amendment bill but the Federal Executive Council chaired by the President will determine the limits “from time to time.”
Daily Trust has obtained a copy of the two-page bill, which was submitted to the lawmakers in July but its details not made public since then.
Non-implementation of the procurement law has been one of the sticking points in the frosty relationship between Jonathan and the House of Representatives, which passed a resolution in November 2011 urging the president to inaugurate the council.
The original law, enacted in June 2007 by then-president Umaru Yar’Adua, sought to stop the Federal Executive Council from its weekly contracts approval ritual by empowering the NCPP headed by the Finance Minister to handle all government procurements.
But Jonathan failed to inaugurate the council, and instead sent amendments to the National Assembly.
‘Mutilating the law’
In the new bill, Jonathan is seeking amendment to section one of the principal act to replace the “Minister of Finance” with “The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” as “the chairman of the council with the inherent powers to delegate.”