The Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Alex Otti on Due Process, Dr Oluebube Chukwu, has said that the present administration will stringently follow due process procedures in the award and execution of contracts.
Chukwu said this on Friday, when he met with the Management of the State Ministry of Environment in Umuahia.
He said that the decision was informed by the desire of the government to achieve better results in infrastructure development.
He further said that the government planned to strengthen its fiscal framework and enforce compliance with established spending limits in government transactions to achieve a sound budgeting system and fiscal responsibility.
Chukwu said that the ministries, departments and agencies of government were expected to adhere strictly to the budget estimates for every fiscal year, when embarking on capital projects.
He said that the importance of budgetary adherence in government business were enormous.
According to him, unregulated project executions, usually created an avenue for misappropriation of government funds.
Chukwu said that the era of unregulated project executions, exceeding budgetary threshold for MDAs, without adhering to the necessary due process procedures, had ended.
He said that the present administration would not welcome any form of shortcuts and illegal practices that would impede the development of the state.
He further said that the State Government had made it mandatory for all contracts by MDAs to pass the due process tests.
Chukwu said: “For any project to be executed in the state, the Ministry’s Tenders Board, after publishing adverts for bids, will conduct all necessary pre-qualification preliminary checks of the project and contractors.
“The board will forward the details of the successful contractor to Due Process Office (DPO), which will at that stage issue a Certificate of No Objection to the contractor.
“For capital projects above the threshold of each ministry, the DPO will forward the contract documents to the Finance and General Purpose Committee (FGPC) which, after satisfactory checks, will issue a recommendation letter to the DPO.
“The DPO then prepares the Due Process Compliance Certificate in company with the Recommendation Letter from F&GPC, which will be forwarded to the State Executive Council through the state FGPC, and receives approval from it, before sending it back to the MDA.
“The MDA then forwards it to the Ministry of Justice for vetting, agreement and other official actions.
“The contract documents will finally be brought back to the DPO, which issues the Due Process Certificate, authenticating that required steps were taken in line with approved standards.”
He further said that the State Government had commenced building a databank of all government registered contractors in the state and urged ministries executing projects to liaise with the DPO for easy assessment.
Chukwu said that the State Government through the DPO would embark on a performance review programme of all government projects in the state, to ensure quality compliance.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Environment, Philemon Ogbonna, expressed the ministry’s commitment to always align with the State Government’s approved standards on contract awards and execution.
Ogbonna said that the ministry, under his watch, would ensure strict compliance with all the required processes for contract awards and execution.
“The ministry will not hesitate to consult the DPO for proper guidance at all times,” he said.
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