Sola POPOOLA
The media and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have been admonished to strengthen Publuc Procurement by promoting women inclusion through their advocacies and reporting.
They are also enjoined to take interest in Procurement Plan by demanding its publication by government agencies and parastatals at the beginning of every fiscal year .
This was the focus of the two-day Capacity Building organised by the Ekiti State Bureau of Public Procurement for the media and CSOs with the support of Open Contracting Partnership (OCP).
The training is designed to mainstream inclusion and to promote women-lead and women owned businesses in the state .
The forum sought to form a strong partnership in monitoring and evaluation of public protects for proper accountability.
In his opening remarks, the Director, Roads & Civil Engineering Procurenent, Engineer Samuel Ogundare while decrying low participation in procurement also hinted that women accounted for only one percent across the states and at the Federal.
He explained that the OCP roledout grant in 2021 to promote open Contracting stresding that Ekiti State Bureau of Public Procurement was the only beneficiary of the grant in Africa .
Having attaining this great feat, Ogundare hoped that the Ekiti story would be used to determine a number of issues around government and governance in Nigeria,in particular and Africa as a whole .
The Procurenent officer also lamented that 70percent of the corruption perpetrated in government took place in the procurement space.
He attributed the negative scenario to lack of requisite knowledge, legal and regulating frameworks for women to function well in the procurement space.
In his presentation, Mr Nelson Akerele from( BIGIF) entitled “Gender Inclusiveness In Public Procurement ” undrescored the need for gender sensitive and social inclusion in the procurement process.
He desribed women as better managers of resources adding that the large chunk of their earnings is spend on the family.
According to him, available records have shown that no woman got a contract worth N100million in Ekiti State berween 2010 and now.
Though, Akerele commended Ekiti State Government for enacting a number of Procurement Laws and Policies, he however urged it to ensure inclusiveness and fairness.
He explained that no fewer that eight legal frameworks were in operation in Ekiti between 2011 and now.
The BIGIF boss recommended gender sensitivity in the adverts / gingjes to enhance Gender Responsive Procurement.
He attributed women’s limitations to public procurement to Limitations on property and inheritance rights including land, restrictions on women’s freedom and mobility, discrimination by job type and sector, lack of access to finances and technology.
He also advocated the bridging of the gender capacity gap and disaggregated data to promote inclusion.