Procurement malpractices reason for corruption in govt institutions – SGF

By Daniel Abia, P/Harcourt

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, has stated that corruption in government continues to thrive through procurement malpractices.

Akume, who spoke in Port Harcourt on Monday at the 2025 Mandatory Continuous Public Procurement Capacity Training Programme organised by Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF and Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, for procurement officers, said such abuses directly steal development from the people of Nigeria.

Senator Akume, who spoke through his technical adviser, Olusegun Adekunle, said every naira lost to a fraudulent contract is a naira taken away from building a school, hospital, road, or water supply that citizens desperately need.

He said public procurement is recognised globally as a crucial instrument for good governance and corruption prevention, saying that by enforcing open and competitive bidding, due diligence and oversight avenues for kickbacks and collusion are closed off.

“In Nigeria’s case, the reforms introduced by the Public Procurement Act 2007 and the establishment of the BPP have been yielding positive results. This very program is a continuation of that effort as mandated by the Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2007 (Part II, Section 5(k)) which explicitly empowers the BPP to organise training and development programmes for procurement professionals. By convening this capacity-building exercise, we are fulfilling a legal and moral duty to equip our procurement officers with the skills and ethics required to manage public resources effectively.

“It is also pertinent to recall the policy directive issued by this office in June 2017, which prohibited unqualified personnel from performing procurement functions in any MDA where a career Procurement Officer is available. That circular directed MDAs without qualified officers to engage with BPP for training and to ensure such staff undergo conversion or induction into the procurement cadre.

“The intention and objective include underpinning public procurement as a specialised profession, and to ensure that only trained, certified officers oversee this critical function. This will help us in the quest for professionalisation, protect the sanctity of the procurement process and uphold the standards of our profession.

“I wish to use this opportunity to reiterate to all public sector agencies that are still in default of this policy to change course, as the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, in conjunction with BPP and anti-corruption agencies, has begun the process of auditing compliance.

“I find it compelling to remind you all that public procurement is the backbone of public service and national development. Virtually every government policy or development plan, from building roads and power stations to providing healthcare and education, relies on procurement to succeed. Studies have shown that public procurement is an essential part of good governance and efficient service delivery.

“Statistics similarly show that it accounts for an estimated 10–25% of our GDP. This means that a significant portion of our nation’s economic activity and development budget flows through procurement processes. How well we manage this process directly impacts our development outcomes.

“Let me also remind you that Nigeria’s current National Development Plan has ambitious targets which include massive investments in infrastructure and services. It similarly envisions a total expenditure of hundreds of trillions of naira by 2025.

“The effective implementation of these plans hinges on a robust procurement system that ensures every naira is spent wisely. The plan emphasises the need for strong governance and accountability frameworks which only a transparent procurement system can provide. The National Development Plan cannot achieve goals like job creation, poverty reduction, and infrastructure expansion without procurement processes that deliver value for money.

“As procurement officers, therefore, you play a crucial role in national development because your skills and decisions determine whether public projects are delivered on time, on budget, and to specification. “As one of my esteemed predecessors noted, ‘public procurement officers are key to our infrastructure development, providing the competencies critical to delivering a transparent and efficient system that guarantees good value for money,'” he said.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Trust Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, Ahmed Galadima Aminu, said PTDF has trained more than 15,000 Nigerians through both local and international scholarship programmes.

He said through collaboration with tertiary institutions, the PTDF has completed the upgrade of 26 departments in various universities and established 214 ICT centres across the country.

He said the interventions include the construction, furnishing, and equipping of specialised laboratories, all strategically targeted at strengthening academic programmes that support the oil, gas, and energy sector.

“Our commitment to quality education also extends to strengthening secondary education in Nigeria, as reflected in the soon-to-be-launched PTDF STEM Programme, which is designed to address foundational weaknesses in the delivery of STEM Education in 1,000 secondary schools across the 774 local government areas in the pilot phase,” he said.

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