Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Friday charged Chief Executives of Federal Parasatatals charged with the responsibility of interpreting government policy to be above board and always put the interest of the people at the centre of their actions.
The Governor who spoke at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja during a Procurement Retreat organized for Chief Executive Officers of Federal Government Parastatals, urged them to use the opportunity to fine tune where necessary, the process and procedures in their various organisations towards promoting good governance, transparency and accountability in the management of public funds.
Governor Ambode who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Tunji Bello stated that the present administration in Lagos State has declared zero tolerance for wastage in public finance through strict adherence to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) system for probity and accountability.
“Corrupt practices that rendered our national economic and infrastructural development comatose necessitated that a transparent and measurable system of applying public finances be developed”.
“This decision is further justified by the drastic reduction in the revenue that accrues to the national purse as well as States and Local Governments. It is therefore imperative that we embrace global standards of prudent management of resources with a view to maximizing value for money spent”, he added.
He stated that Nigeria, like many other nations across the world is being challenged by the vagaries of the emerging world economic order, stressing that the situation calls for concerted efforts and creative thinking on the part of all, most especially, policy drivers and implementers at the retreat.
The Governor said in 2003, the State Government took the initiative of collaborating with the World Bank by conducting and Assessment of the State Procurement which was further reviewed in 2010 leading to the adoption of part of the World Bank report.
He informed that since the commencement of the Procurement Law started in Lagos in April 2014, several reforms have been introduced to address the challenges that were encountered during the implementation exercise.
“Some of the key reforms include the provision for the cadre of Public Procurement Officers in the public service, adoption of standard bidding documents, call and opening of bids by tender in public, provision of adjudicatory mechanism for resolution of complaints and constitution of an Admin board for the Procurement Agency”.
“All of these have resulted in improved public trust, investors’ confidence, and better collaboration with multilateral development and donor agencies”, he stated.
He expressed the hope that the conclusions of this retreat will impact positively on the lives of Nigerians and fortunes of the nation.
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