From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Federal Government, yesterday, said that with effect from 2023, any of its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) that fail to adopt the reviewed Standard Bidding documents will be sanctioned and its procurement access will not be approved.
Speaking at a stakeholder’s workshop on the Review of Draft Standard Bidding and Contract Documents being used for the procurement of goods, works and services, the Director General of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Dr Mamman Ahmadu, said that MDAs have been using several editions of bidding documents to the extent that some use salary documents. So, by the time the standard bidding documents are approved, MDAs will have no choice but to adopt the reviewed Standard Bidding documents.
“So, what we are saying is that by the time we approve these ones all agencies of federal government will have no choice but to adopt the Standard Bidding documents as their tender document. The tender documents that will be issued to contractors will be uniform. The bidding documents are about 13 or 14 in number depending on the type of procurement. So, all you need to do is to adopt it, tailor, edit it to suite the particular procurement. But they have to use the Standard Bidding documents. This is by law.”
For now, we have been a bit lenient. But in 2023, any agency who does not adopt and use it will not have his procurement access approved. It becomes illegal for you not to use the Standard Bidding document. And that’s why we are taking this pain to sensitive them. We will be going to get their input, so that by the time we adopt them it becomes a document” he said.
The DG who was represented by the Director, Energy Infrastructure, Babatunde Kuye, noted that BPP in line with its functions stipulated in Section 5(m) of the public procurement act, 2007 is mandated to prepare and update standard bidding and contract documents with the aim of achieving its objectives of transparency, competition, cost effectiveness and professionalism in the public sector procurement system and disposal of public assets in line with international best practice.