Senate to stop FEC from awarding contracts

THE Senate, yesterday, commenced a process aimed at stopping the President and the Federal Executive Council, FEC, from awarding contracts of any kind in the country.

The legislature said there was no basis for the FEC to award contracts, insisting that the status quo must be changed.

To this end, it passed a resolution, urging President Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, set up what it called the “National Council on Public Procurement, NCPP,” to be saddled with the role of contracts awards.

The Senate said the establishment of such body would give life and meaning to the Public Procurement Act so as to achieve the laudable objectives for which the Act came into being.

The development came following a motion tagged “Urgent need to compel the National Council on Public Procurement of Nigeria,” sponsored by Senator Theodore Orji, PDP, Abia Central and Senator Ali Ndume, APC, Borno South.

The lawmakers said the good intention of the legislature in passing the said act into law was to establish a regulatory authority for monitoring and oversight of public procurement.

They added that since the passage of the act in 2007, the National Council on Procurement has not been established, adding that without the establishment of the National Council on Procurement, the Procurement Act is as good as dead.

The senators further added that since the cabinet ministers were in place, it was time for the Federal Government to act, explaining that the setting up of the council will avoid erosion of public confidence in the procurement process.

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