Stakeholders have been charged to increase awareness and participation towards open and effective Public Procurement.
They were also enjoined to make use of the Freedom of information act(FOIA) and Open contracting law in monitoring government activities and projects .
This was the focus of a two-day sensitization workshop organised by the Accountability Lab with the theme “Improving accountability and transparency in public procurement”
The programme held at Delight Hotel Ado-Ekiti, the state capital eas attended by critical stakeholders, including the media ,civil society organizations and relevant government agencies .
According to the organisers ,the purpose of the ‘ engagement is to bring together stakeholders involved in open contracting to foster collaboration, exchange knowledge and experiences, and collectively work toward improving transparency and accountability in public procurement processes
The programme was designed to provide a platform for meaningful discussions, networking, and strategizing on how to advance the implementation of open contracting principles in Ekiti State.
The session delved into various topics related to open contracting, including the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), data management practices, policy advocacy, and best practices in transparency and accountability. The sessions will include interactive discussions and opportunities for participants to share their insights, challenges, and success stories.
In his opening remarks,the Country Director of the Accountability Lab in Nigeria, Odeh Friday said ” the intention for this program basically is to see how we can focus on procurement basically on service delivery and how projects being implemented by the government serve the people, first of all, is to see that citizens at their community level are involved in building up the project, basically making decisions as they affect the project.
In addition to this, Friday said ” data is accessible for everybody to monitor projects, to ensure that it is well implemented. Whatever feedback we get, we ensure that the monitoring process will give feedback to the government.
“So we’re trying to create a system where we can bring civil society, the government’s private sector, and the media into one room so they can all share the same idea.
“If there’s a problem with the project being implemented, the role is to give feedback to the government so they can implement. So this monitoring is what we’re trying to do.
“Lastly to ensure that we support the procurement agency to publish most of this data. Without, you and I would not know which project, how much has been spent for that but with publication we ensure everybody has access to information of government data”
On what to expect from the participants he said “We expect people in this room to pick up this action and this engagement to monitor projects effectively. because we are looking at a situation where open contracting will be at the forefront of the phase of what we do.
“So open contracting process should be open to you, to the private sector, to the media, and civil society. The Bureau of Public Procurement should ensure that the systems are open and information accessible to the people”, he said