The chairman, of the House Committee on Rural Development Rt. Hon Marcus Onobun KSC has called for the amendment of the 2023 Public Procurement Act, to checkmate the rate of abandoned government projects, wastage of resources, and non-compliance of contractors across Nigeria.
Earlier today during plenary, the member representing Esan West, Esan Central, and Igueben Federal Constituency, Edo State, Rt. Hon. Marcus I. Onobun maintained that the existing law was more favorable to contractors, thereby thwarting the developmental projects in the nation.
In his debate, captioned: A CASE FOR THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT ACT (AMENDMENT) BILL 2023, Rt. Hon Marcus Onobun said the purpose of the proposed provisions is to reduce corruption, contract abandonment, and waste of resources and generally to forestall a situation where contractors treat government contracts with levity and disdain to the detriment of the society.
According to him, “The gap in the Act which this Bill, if passed, seeks to remedy, is contained in section 37 of the extant Act, as the section seeks to make provisions for the protection of contractors in the event of delay of payment to the contractors without any requisite provisions for the protection of the procuring entity if a contractor fails to deliver a contract within the targeted period.
Rt. Hon Marcus Onobun averred that the new section 37a under this Bill is to make requisite provisions to protect the procuring entity if the contractors fail to deliver a contract within the targeted date.
The Bill, however, scaled through the second reading.