Procurement experts list five key factors frustrating contracts execution in Nigeria
Nigerian experts in contract procurement and supply chain management sector have listed five factors that usually derail majority of shallow or deep pocket contracts of the federal or state governments over the years till now.
According to them, the factors include weak access to completion fund, corruption, government policy inconsistency, poor monitoring system and political interferences’.
While noting that these were the facts behind the failures in achieving contract objectives in Nigeria, the experts further averred that besides, several other government contracts failed because agencies change requirements or scope after the contracts are awarded, adding that poor communication exists between the agency and the contractor.
The group was quick to advice for use of effective Post Contract Evaluation (PCE), saying it can help improve contract performance in Nigeria if the evaluation is done in a manner that guarantees fairness.
Leading the argument, the General Manager, Supply Chain Management, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Mr. Olubusola Ogunbanwo said when all terms of contract are strictly adhered to; it will improve cost effectiveness, encourage benchmarking and ensure delivery of quality among others
Explaining on the topic, ‘Impact of Post-Contract Evaluation and Appraisal on the Nigerian Economy’, at the yearly conference of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply Chain (UK) Nigerian branch, Ogunbanwo advised government on the need to save funds and assign people to work on them to get abandoned projects completed.
According to him, “The starting point is someone going round the country and taking inventory of all the abandoned projects, which you can begin to evaluate on the basis of relevance to the social needs of the people and begin to rank them. What you need to finish them up might not be up to the amount that has been spent on it, and if they are not completed they will never be useful to anybody.”
In his presentation, the Managing Partner of Pamaryllis Consulting, Paschal Egwim called for a centralized process in driving procurement, stressing that “there are processes from the procurement law, procedures and regulations but there is no computerized system driving those technologies”.
Earlier in his keynote address, the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry (BoI), Olukayode Pitan, observed that “across the supply chain, there is the need to optimise a firm’s working capital, both internally and externally. He stressed that if it is achieved, it can be beneficial to all actors along the supply chain”.
Pitan, represented by the Head, strategy and corporate transformation, Yinka Adegboye, maintained that “Innovative products and processes are needed to support the needs of different players within the supply chain. Effective management and financing of supply chain is increasingly important to the economic growth of the country.”
Participants agreed in the communiqué issued at the end that until governments’ begin to take issues of following the implementation of contracts with modern information technology and policy consistency, cases of abandoned projects will continue to rise nationwide.
