The federal government has approved the revision of the existing Prior Review and Monetary Thresholds for service-wide application in the procurement of goods, works, and services.

The approval is a sequel to the government’s bid to ensure sustained and realistic procurement outcomes in the face of current economic realities and to enhance budget implementation and ease of doing business.

The approval is contained in a circular directed to relevant officials and offices, dated May 27, and signed by the secretary to the government of the federation, George Akume.

Mr Akume said the currently approved procurement thresholds supersede any extant operational threshold, except for the special thresholds approved for expenditures related to NNPCL, which are in U.S. dollars and self-adjust to reflect the prevailing naira equivalent values.

He said the revised thresholds would apply to the three branches of government —the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, as well as their respective tender boards.

The SGF stated that revising the procurement method threshold aims to ensure sustainable and realistic procurement outcomes, given current economic realities, while also enhancing budget implementation and facilitating ease of doing business.

He stated that the Bureau of Public Procurement had been instructed to enforce the use of open competitive bidding as the default method of procurement.

Mr Akume said the BPP would focus on pre- and post-reviews, procurement audits, surveillance, and monitoring to guard against the abuse of procurement processes and to enforce appropriate sanctions where necessary, in line with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007.

The SGF stated that the audit report would be forwarded to the National Assembly biannually, in line with Section 5(p) of the PPA, 2007.

Mr Akume said that, given the foregoing, ministries, extra-ministerial bodies, parastatals, agencies, and government-owned companies were to ensure strict adherence to procurement processing timelines as stipulated.

To this end, MDAs are required to furnish the bureau with quarterly procurement progress reports, enabling the bureau to track the progress of their procurement activities and ensure that procurements are implemented within the stipulated timelines.

He said procuring entities were further directed to issue notification of award to successful bidders and immediately debrief unsuccessful bidders.

The SGF said MDAs were to ensure projects that fall within the National Competitive Bidding Threshold and below; such procurements shall comply with the government’s ‘Nigeria First’ policy.

He stated that the government would no longer permit non-performing and dishonest contractors to participate in public procurement processes.

Consequently, the BPP will debar any supplier, contractor, or service provider that fails to deliver a contract satisfactorily, deliberately abandons a contract, or obtains a contract through corrupt, fraudulent, collusive, coercive or obstructive practices.

Mr Akume said accounting officers would be responsible for the direct supervision of all procurement processes, while the political heads of ministries have the statutory duty to confirm approvals by the respective tenders boards.

He stated that the federal government was reiterating the need for the timely completion of procurement activities for the 2024 financial year and the early commencement of procurement activities for the 2025 financial year, as previously communicated in circulars.

(NAN)