Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — The Leadership of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, in collaboration with a consulting firm, Renner & Renner, last week, held a retreat for staff of the procurement department of the agency to streamline and make transparent, the procurement process of the agency.
Speaking to newsmen at the retreat in Lagos, Managing Director of the NPA, Mr. Mohammed Bello-Koko, said that the retreat will further bring officials of the department up to speed on how to initiate and further understand the procurement process.
Bello-Koko also said that one of the ways to improve the process is to look how safe and how quickly the procurement process can be initiated and implemented.
He explained that it was necessary for procurement department to advice management on the best way to go in the process because if there are mistakes, it is management that will be in trouble.
He said: “With the procurement Act, we need to study and understand it, there are so many ways you could initiate procurement
“One of the things we are looking at is the right way to do it, the safest way to do it within the law.
“And we have a consultant who will also discuss with them and teach them the governance of the procurement. For us, it is necessary for them to advice management on the best way to go on the procurement process.
“If there are mistakes at the end of the day, it is the management that will be in trouble and we would not want that. They owe us that and we also owe it to them to listen to them and encourage them.’’
Speaking also at the meeting, the Country Manager for Renner &Renner, Ibby Iyama, said that faulty procurement processes and procedures have put a lot of management in problem.
Iyama explained that a transparent process and procedure will move the NPA to excellence because at the end of the day the narrative would have been changed for the better.
She also noted that because most of the leadership of government agencies does not understand the Act, Politicians come in and they ask staff to do what they are meant to do and when Politicians leave the staff and management are put in trouble.
Follow us on twitter