Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved N1.6 billion for the establishment of e-Government Procurement Platform to address corrupt practices in the government’s procurement system.

Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr Mamman Ahmadu, said the new platform would help eliminate corruption as well as enhance the country’s procurement process.

He said: “Today, BPP presented a memo on e-government procurement. E-government procurement has the potential of improving the procurement process, eliminate corruption, and reduce the leak time in the procurement process itself.

“There have been lot of complaints about the long time it takes to go through the due process. With the establishment of this, we will reduce that time.

“It also removes subjectivity from the process. There have been lots of complaints about subjectivity in the approval process that will be dealt with squarely when it is eventually launched,” he said.

According to him, the step taken by government is in line with the current global trend.

“E-government procurement is a global trend and from the research carried out by the World Bank, it had been established that countries that have taken off with e-government procurement have witnessed exponential economic growth and they have stimulated ICT in those countries.

“It will reduce corruption to the barest minimum because it will reduce the human interface within the process. The overall cost is about N1.6 billion,” he said.

The Guardian