…to remove 3-years tax clearance, other stringent requirements
By James Adamu
The Senate on Wednesday passed a resolution seeking to amend the Public Procurement Act and the Local Content Act to provide a level-playing field that guarantees easy participation in the procurement process by indigenous contractors.
The Red Chamber said a growing trend whereby nearly all available contracts down to communities were awarded to foreign firms neither grew the local economy nor empower small businesses financially.
Lawmakers, while sharing their experiences, said the situation had degenerated to a point where poorly-trained or inexperienced hands were imported into the country to execute contracts that could have been easily delivered by Nigerians.
However, they also blamed the trend on the stringent procurement requirements set particularly by the PPA, including the provision to file a three-year tax clearance certificate and the huge capital base firms bidding for jobs are expected to meet.
The Senate passed the resolution as lawmakers debated a motion on “The Preponderant Need to Engage Local Indigenous Contractors for the Execution of Small-Scale Federal Government Contracts to Stimulate Grassroots Economic Development. Sponsor”, moved by Senator Suleiman, Umar Sadiq (Kwara-North).
Ondo-North Senator, Ipinsagba Olajide, noted that a requirement like three-year tax clearance certificate had already disqualified many Nigerians from bidding for certain contracts, saying fresh graduates who just registered a company would not get a contract no matter how small the amount involved.
The Senate Committees on Local Content and Bureau of Public Procurement Procurement (BPP) mandated to liaise with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the BPP to recommend relevant amendments to the PPA and the Local Content Act.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, while contributing to the debate, said he had seen many cases where small contracts were denied local contractors for the simple reason that they could not cross the hurdles of the BPP.
“My appeal is that the Federal Government should look into the possibilities of assisting these local contractors like small iron benders and so on.
“If there is a job of say N50million, why can’t they get it?
It will enhance their finances, wellbeing, and in the process we are building the local economy”, Musa added.
Former governor of Kebbi State, Senator Adamu Aliero, though supporting the motion as “a laudable idea”, insisted that nothing would change unless the law establishing the BPP was amended.
“What is happening now is what the law says. There is nothing that can be done except we change the law”, he added.
Former governor of Edo State, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, gave a slightly different view, saying that contracts should be clearly-defined in terms of the competence of contractors to handle them.
For instance, Oshiomhole observed that many local contractors did not have the equipment or the trained personnel capable of executing some contracts.
“While I was in the office as governor, I had two, even up to three experiences where the jobs could not be delivered”, he said.
The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) suggested that where to start from was for local contractors to acquire the requisite equipment for project execution, in addition to extensive training of their personnel.
Commenting on the motion before senators passed the resolution, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, said it was worrying that all over the country, foreign firms were in charge of most contracts, while the local firms could at best “supply sand and gravels.”
He stated that it was almost impossible to hear that a Nigerian contractor bid for a job in the United States of America, China or Germany and won, noting that the laws in such countries took care of the interest of the indigenous companies.
“We must stop the idea of bringing low-level workers to do the job that would ordinarily be done by Nigerians”, Akpabio told the session before ramming his gavel to signal the passing of the motion by senators.
Meanwhile, the Senate also passed a bill to establish the Bitumen Development Commission to harness Nigeria’s bitumen resources.
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC, Ondo-South) sponsored the bill, which was earlier referred to the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development.
On Wednesday, following a report laid by the committee and approved by the Senate, the bill was passed for thirs reading.
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