Olukoyede: Procurement-related fraud accounts for 90% of public sector corruption

Ola Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says contract and procurement-related fraud accounts for 90 percent of the corruption in the public sector.

Olukoyede spoke on Friday during a meeting with the management team of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) in Abuja

The team was led by Adebowale Adedokun, the director-general of BPP.

The EFCC boss said commingling and contract splitting are some of the major issues in procurement-related fraud in the public sector.

He said the EFCC and BPP must work together to strengthen project implementation and monitoring in Nigeria.

“When it comes to the public sector, which is one of our major problems in Nigeria, we discovered that contract and procurement fraud takes more than 90 percent of the volume of public sector fraud,” Olukoyede was quoted in a statement released by Dele Oyewale, EFCC spokesperson.

“If you look at it, they range from commingling, contract splitting and all forms of shenanigans all over the place.

“Infrastructure-wise and all other developmental problems are attributable to contract and procurement fraud.

“It lies with you and with me to make a change. If we can work together, we will be able to leave this country better than when we met it.”

On his part, Adedokun said the purpose of the visit was to request continued collaboration in addressing procurement-related fraud.

The BPP DG called on the EFCC to rely on documents emanating from the agency for investigation of procurement fraud.