The Lagos State Government, through the Parastatals Monitoring Office (PMO), in synergy with the Public Procurement Agency (PPA) and Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC), has urged the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the State’s Agencies to comply with procurement procedures and laws.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Parastatals Monitoring, Mr. Afolabi Ayantayo gave the charge at a one-day workshop tagged “Compliance with the Procurement Law and Procedure as a Catalyst to Drive T.H.E.M.E.S Development Agenda of the Current Administration” and organised by the government to train the CEOs on procurement procedure and laws at PSSDC, Magodo.
Ayantayo stated that the main objective of the workshop was to create a better understanding of the procurement processes and clear the grey areas in the relevant Law.
He said, “Since the domestication of the Procurement Act in Lagos State in 2011, and the subsequent establishment of Public Procurement Agency (PPA) in 2012, many of our accounting officers, particularly in our agencies, are yet to have a clear understanding of the procurement processes as stipulated by the Procurement Law. This workshop was, therefore, organised by the government to fill the obvious vacuum”.
Ayantayo further disclosed that in order to safeguard public interest and also engender economic development, it is imperative for all the CEOs to be in tune with the current realities of procurement processes, procedures and laws in the State.
In his words: “As public procurement accounts for a substantial portion of the taxpayers’ money, governments are expected to carry it out efficiently and with high standards of conduct in order to ensure high quality of service delivery and safeguard the public interest. It is a tested principle in governance that effective and efficient procurement procedure engenders economic development in any given society and this is why l find this workshop very important”.
Speaking on the theme of the training, the Permanent Secretary, PMO, Mrs. Kafayat Ajenifuja said the workshop was organised on the heels of the need to re-engineer agencies in the State for a better, effective and efficient service delivery, bearing in mind the T.H.E.M.E.S development agenda of the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Ajenifuja, therefore, urged all participants to take advantage of the workshop by making it as interactive as possible because PMO will begin project inspection and monitoring of agencies in earnest, with the assurance of communicating the schedule for the exercise soonest.
SO/TMS/OS
