EXCLUSIVE: Ministries can now award a N1.499bn contract without BPP

The federal government has approved a prior review of the thresholds service-wide application for procurements in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Ministerial tenders board can now award a contract of N30 million and above — but less than N1.5 billion — for works.

This represents a 200 percent increase from the initial approval of N10 million and above — but less than N500 million.

The board can also award N20 million and above (but less than N300 million) for goods, while the threshold for services is N20 million and above (but less than N300 million).

Before now, it could only approve contracts from N5 million and above (but less than N100 million) for goods and consultant fees.

Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, sent a circular to that effect on Wednesday.

According to the circular, seen by TheCable, Mustapha said the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) would be more disposed to post review, procurement audit, surveillance and monitoring activities to check against abuse procurement processes and enforce appropriate sanctions.

The review states that only BPP can provide a certificate of “no objection” for procurement of goods worth N300 million and above, works from N1.5 billion and above and consultant fees above N300 million in MDAs.

Certificate of no objection is approval showing that a procuring entity conforms with the procurement laws.

“In order 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 Federal Government has approved the revision of the subsisting Prior Review and Monetary Thresholds for Service-Wide Application for procurement of Goods, Works and Services,” the circular reads.

“With the revision of the procurement thresholds, the bureau shall be more disposed to post review, procurement audit, surveillance and monitoring activities to check against abuse or breach of to enforce appropriate sanctions where necessary in line with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.”

The circular added that the approved procurement thresholds supersede all subsisting thresholds with the exception of the special thresholds for expenditures related to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC), which is in US Dollar and is self-adjusting to reflect the prevailing Naira equivalent values.

Mustapha said the implementation of the circular is with immediate effect.

According to section 22 of the Public Procurement Act, the Tenders Board, headed by an accounting officer (permanent secretary or executive officer), is responsible for the procurements of goods, works and services within the threshold set in the regulations.

For parastatal tenders board, the government also reviewed the contract thresholds to N10 milion and above (less than N100 million) for goods, N30 million upwards (less than N1.5 billion) for works, and N20 million above for services.

It added that accounting officers (permanent secretaries) can only approve less than N20 million contracts for goods, N30 million and below for works and N10 million and below for services.

For the director-general and chief executive officer (CEO) of MDAs, the contract threshold was reviewed upward from N2.5 million to N10 million for goods.

For works and services, it increased the threshold from N5 million and N2.5 million to N20 million and N10 million, respectively.