Retired Air Vice Marshal Muhammadu Muhammed, Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has called on procurement officers of the agency to be accountable and diligent in the discharge of their duties.
He said this at a one-day workshop organised for directors, procurement officers and tender board members of the agency on Monday in Abuja.
Muhammed said the workshop was organised to encourage public accountability, as officers carry out the mandates of the agency.
“I consider it necessary for us to have this workshop especially at the beginning of the year because there are so many things we have been doing in practice.
“Though, we have done very well but there is a disconnect between the traditional process and knowledge based application.
“This training has exposed these things to us, in terms of the execution of contracts, generation of contracts and review of contracts.
“Whether you are just an official of NEMA or member of procurement planning committee or the Tenders Board, you have a responsibility.
“You have to link your requirements with objectives of the agency and when it gets to the procurement planning committee, you have to do your duties with diligence.
“Anything short of that will throw the agency into disrepute or unnecessary delays in the execution of the things we need to do,” he said.
Mr Mufutau Oloyede, facilitator at the workshop, added that the training was expected to expose all procurement committee members to the basic knowledge of procurement activities.
Oloyede, a former director of public procurement at the Ministry of Water Resources, added that a good procurement process in any government organisation must be open, precise, timely, transparent, must achieve value for money and be concluded on time.
“If you do not do proper planning from the beginning, you will have failed contracts and failed procurements, because you did not go through the process,” he said.
Oloyede also charged the officers to get acquainted with the Procurement Act of the country and have the fear of God as they discharge their duties.
NAN
