Bauchi govt introduces e-procurement, inclusion of SMEs in contract awards

From Ahmad Mohammed, Bauchi

Bauchi state government has introduced e-procurement with inclusion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in its Public Procurement Act 2020.
The Executive Chairman, Bauchi State Budget Monitoring, Price Intelligence and Public Procurement Agency, Engineer Joshua Sanga disclosed this in an interview with Government House Correspondents in Bauchi.
The Chairman who was commenting on the recent signing into law, the amended 2020 Public Procurement Act by Governor Bala Mohammed of the state, said business will not be as usual as the Agency will ensure transparency and accountability in the award of contracts in the state.
Mr Sanga while commending the governor for signing the bill into law, said with this development, the Agency is now Bauchi State Public Procurement Bureau.
“We are very grateful to His Excellency for his desire to ensure transparency and accountability as well as value for money for the people of Bauchi state”.
“His Excellency, the Governor had earlier directed for the review of the law on public procurement in Bauchi state to strengthen the operations of the Agency in many aspects, and now it has been done.”
Engineer Joshua Sanga who noted that there was no e-procurement in the previous procurement law said, “initially there wasn’t any provision for that, where any contractor desirous of working for Bauchi state will tender online”.
“But now, it is e-procurement, and this will really reduce or eliminate the issue of corruption of favoritism or anything in public procurement, where people can tender online”. It is an e-process, electronic process that human interference will be limited”.
He said the position of the Executive Chairman of the Agency will now be a Director General so as to operate without much interference from both the executive and the legislature as such independence will really strengthen the operations of the Bureau.