The Chairman, House Committee on Procurement, Lagos State House of Assembly, Samuel Apata, has sought sanctions for ministries, departments and agencies that may want to “circumvent” procurement plans in the state.
This was as the Lagos State Head of Service, Bode Agoro, appealed to stakeholders in public procurement to continue to support the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency to enable the agency to sustain its outstanding performance.
The Head of Service made the appeal in an address delivered on his behalf by the Secretary, Lagos State Staff Housing Board, Abdul-Rafiu Fashola, at the opening ceremony of a three-day Procurement Planning Clinic organised for procuring entities in the state.
The agency’s spokesperson, Oladapo Olatunde, in a Thursday statement, noted that while expressing the commitment of the House to ensuring probity and accountability, Apata proposed that “any MDAs that deliberately circumvent their procurement plans to undermine the good intentions of the state government as indicated in the approved budget should, henceforth, be sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others.”
On his part, Agoro pledged the continued support of the state government to the agency, adding that procurement personnel in the state would continue to benefit from opportunities in capacity development programmes of the state.
Agoro urged procurement personnel of procuring entities in the state to “actively participate in the review of the procurement plans” so that they could properly guide their various procuring entities in effecting whatever amendments might be required by the agency.
In his welcome address at the event, the Director-General, Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Fatai Onafowote, promised the agency would continue to do everything within its power “towards ensuring that procurement plans of procuring entities of the state are implemented in a manner that will guarantee the realisation of the objectives of the state government as envisaged in the approved year 2024 “budget of renewal”.
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