This president just keeps adding to his legend. Legend of the BLIND leading the ONE-EYED, that is.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/editorial/38309-contracting-sovereignty.html
By Editorial2 hours 24 minutes ago

The rate at which the Federal Government is delegating responsibilities, (some people call it outsourcing), it would not be long before the entire government machinery is outsourced and we would be wondering why we have to continue to spend huge amounts to oil the inept and corrupt system. Early this year, the government handed over the responsibility of implementing its social safety initiative, the Subsidy Reinvestment (SURE) programme to a committee headed by Dr Christopher Kolade. Our finance ministry is firmly in the hands of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who is also the coordinating minister for the economy.

Now, President Goodluck Jonathan has come out with another fanciful idea, which is to bring in World Bank officials into the Presidency to vet Federal Government contracts. The president, who disclosed this in an interview with TELL magazine said the aim is to reduce corruption in the system. “The process of procurement in the MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) is also another area we have corruption. We have set up various committees to look into it. We have the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP, but that has not completely stopped corruption in procurement. We still hear stories. Not long ago, I had to redeploy some directors. We are doing everything to reduce corruption.

“Very soon we will get people from the World Bank to be at my office. For every contract we want to award, irrespective of the structures we have on the ground, they will assess it, so that if a job is supposed to cost N10,000 and it’s awarded for N10,000, the likelihood of that contractor bribing anybody will be reduced. Even if he wants to do public relations, it will be minimal. It will not be like the scandalous thing we have now,” Jonathan said.

Pray, what has happened to the Nigerian industry, integrity and (especially) honesty which was seen as the best policy in years past? What has happened to our sovereignty? What has befallen our sense of national pride? Have things gone so bad such that we don’t have any sense of shame again?  Perhaps the depth to which the country has sunk is not surprising to those who have been following the progressive deterioration of things. For instance, a president who would not mind being introduced in the comity of nations as the leader of a country which imports a substantial quantity of the fuel his people consume, despite being a major producer of crude oil, is less likely to contemplate anything as absurd.

Again, what the president is doing is merely feigning concern about corruption. Many people have lost hope in the ability of the present government to fight corruption. How on earth can the president feel that by handing the job of contract vetting to some World Bank officials, corruption in the procurement system would be checked? Are World Bank officials angels? The president has apparently forgotten that corruption has assumed a proportion where even angels could be compromised if sent to Nigeria to tame it.

The fact is that the government can only be chasing shadows if this is the way it wants to tackle corruption. In the TELL interview, for instance, the president said he has had to redeploy some directors and that he is “doing everything to reduce corruption”. This does not show seriousness. Do you deploy people found to have engaged in unwholesome practices?

The proposed measure by the Federal Government is unnecessary and diversionary; and it cannot check corruption. What is needed is the political will on the part of the Jonathan administration to face the monster squarely. Perhaps the fear in government circles is that many top shots of the ruling party will have to go with the anti-corruption war because many of them have their hands and necks deep in many iniquitous practices.     

Like I said before, I doubt the authenticity of this story. Even if Nigerian Government descends to this level, I don't want to believe that the WorldBank would go to such an extent for any country. This is against much of all we know of how the bank works to date.

I would doubt it too, but GEJ has said worse things in the past. We'll find out soon though, especially since they quote his interview with TELL.

Anybody on NL with access to the TELL issue in which this interview was supposed to have been published?

Kobojunkie:

Like I said before, I doubt the authenticity of this story. Even if Nigerian Government descends to this level, I don't want to believe that the WorldBank would go to such an extent for any country. This is against much of all we know of how the bank works to date.

Let's not kid ourselves. A government that is committed to gradualism, a government without the balls to step on toes or get radical cannot tackle the type of corruption we have in Nigeria.

If you are not ready to jail people or apply punitive measures, you are simply playing a weak defensive game. The corrupt will keep attacking till they find a way to score and they will definitely score.

You have to take the fight to them. I'm yet to see that.

When I see a Nigerian Government taking the fight to corruption, attacking and drawing blood, then I will believe they are serious.

World bank go bow now, especially when your hosts are the same ones passing small notes asking you to excuse their friends. 

Exactly, GEJ is either more naive than we can ever imagine or trying to wall of some people/groups that do not have the inside angle on how things currently work in Nigeria, including with the so-called international agencies.

Kilode?!:

Let's not kid ourselves. A government that is committed to gradualism, a government without the balls to step on toes or get radical cannot tackle the type of corruption we have in Nigeria.

If you are not ready to jail people or apply punitive measures, you are simply playing a weak defensive game. The corrupt will keep attacking till they find a way to score and they will definitely score.

You have to take the fight to them. I'm yet to see that.

When I see a Nigerian Government taking the fight to corruption, attacking and drawing blood, then I will believe they are serious.

World bank go bow now, especially when your hosts are the same ones passing small notes asking you to excuse their friends. 

Follow-up from the Senate.

Stop FEC contract awards, Senate tells Jonathan http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155970:stop-fec-contract-awards-senate-tells-jonathan-&catid=2:lead-stories&Itemid=8
Written by Isiaka Wakili Thursday, 01 March 2012 05:04

The Senate yesterday told President Jonathan to set up the National Council on Public Procurement to stop what Senator David Mark called “sheer illegality” going on in government contract awards.
A law enacted in 2007 provides for the setting up of a procurement council to be responsible for vetting and endorsing all government contracts, but the council has not been inaugurated and the Federal Executive Council has been discharging this function ever since.

Last week, President Jonathan was quoted in an interview with Tell magazine as saying that he would set up a desk of World Bank officials in his office to scrutinise government contracts so as to reduce corruption in the existing structures.

But civil society groups and lawmakers faulted this move, saying that the President should instead abide by the Public Procurement Act of 2007 to inaugurate the NCPP.

Yesterday, the Senate also waded into the matter when it adopted a motion sponsored by Senator Ahmed Lawal and 16 others, calling on Jonathan to set up the council as provided by law.

Lawal said the Public Procurement Act took effect in June 2007 and provides for the setting up of the National Council on Public Procurement and the Bureau of Public Procurement as regulatory organs for government contracts.

He said provisions of the law have not been fully implemented.

Senators spoke in favour of the motion, urging the President to set up the council and stop circumventing of the law.

Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River) said failure to establish the council could be an oversight on the part of the Presidency but that it was an infraction for the BPP to have been operating without the council.

“I think the implication is that all actions taken so far are really questionable”, he said.

Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South) argued that the non-implementation of the procurement law had allowed corruption to thrive in the award of contracts.

“It is very appalling that laws passed by the legislature are not usually implemented,” Manager said.

Senate President David Mark said, “It is not about whether it is questionable or illegal. The point here is that the government has failed to do what it is supposed to do five years ago. That is what this motion is all about.

“But unfortunately, our resolutions are not binding. I recall in the sixth Senate we had a bill to make our resolutions binding and we then said that we would have a two-third majority so that the motions will become binding like in the United States and Brazil. Until we do that, we cannot say our resolutions are binding at the moment.

“This is not just about a resolution being binding. There is much more than that. There is sheer illegality here and the earlier it is corrected, the better for everybody.”

There was no immediate reaction from the Presidency over the Senate resolution yesterday.

But in an interview with the Guardian newspaper published days ago, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati reacted to a similar resolution by the House of Representatives.

He said the procurement council would not be inaugurated because the law subordinates the Federal Executive Council to the National Council on Public Procurement.

“The Office of the President has noted the resolution of the House of Representatives on the imperative of inaugurating the National Council on Procurement. However, the main issue the council has not been inaugurated is not far to seek,” Abati was quoted as saying.

“Government has proposed an amendment to the Public Procurement Act 2007. The reason for this proposed amendment is that there is a contradiction in the law that sets up the council that has a member of the Federal Executive Council, the Minister of Finance, as the chairman.

“But there is a rule in the book that the council cannot approve certain level of contracts, without the Federal Executive Council’s endorsement. But the law now says the council should approve anything.

“How can a council, headed by a member of the FEC, be more powerful than the FEC that produces the minster? There is a contradiction there that the proposed amendment seeks to remove for it to be functional.

“An example is this: Can the procurement council approve one trillion naira worth of contracts? It is the same Minister of Finance that heads the council that will pay. How can that work?”

Abati said even under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who signed the procurement law, the council was not inaugurated for three years.

“The reason was the same; the law could not be implemented. The Federal Executive Council has the final say on certain level of contracts. That is the contradiction in the act that has to be eliminated.

“What is the work of the FEC set up by the Constitution? Can the act be higher than the Constitution? That is the trouble with the council.”