By Our Correspondents
The Federal Government has again raised the alarm over procurement violations in government owned agencies, warning that accounting officers who award inflated contracts will be sanctioned.
The directive, contained in a circular by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, is the latest in a series of warnings stretching back more than a year, raising questions about why contract inflation persists despite repeated reform promises.
In the circular obtained by this newspaper in Abuja, Akume directed heads of federal government owned enterprises, corporations, councils, authorities and commissions to comply strictly with the Public Procurement Act, 2007, as amended by the Finance Act, 2020, or face penalties.
He said several of these institutions continued to award contracts without recourse to the law, resulting in contract sums above established pricing benchmarks, restricted competition through exclusive arrangements for contractors, and inadequate regulatory oversight.
“This non-compliance is unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated,” Akume said in the circular, which was copied to ministers, permanent secretaries, service chiefs, the Inspector General of Police, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and heads of anti corruption agencies including the ICPC and EFCC.
The SGF directed accounting officers to liaise with the Bureau of Public Procurement for guidance, warning that “any Accounting Officer who contravenes this directive and continues to award contracts without recourse to the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, shall be sanctioned accordingly.”
The warning is not new. In October 2025, the Federal Executive Council issued a similar directive, conveyed through a circular by Akume, ordering government institutions, including the National Assembly, the Judiciary, national defence and security agencies, and the Central Bank of Nigeria, to comply with procurement requirements when utilising public funds.
In May 2026, the BPP barred Ministries, Departments and Agencies from processing upward revisions of contract sums without first obtaining certification from the bureau, introducing guidelines that centralised the review and approval of contract variations regardless of value.
The bureau’s Director General, Dr Adebowale Adedokun, said at the time that the reforms were designed to block “one of the persistent channels through which contract costs were inflated and corruption perpetrated in Nigeria’s public procurement system.” He added: “Variations must not become a backdoor for cost inflation and scope creep.”
In October 2026, the government announced a mandatory 14 day standstill period between the announcement of an intended contract award and the conclusion of procurement contracts, designed to give unsuccessful bidders room to seek clarification, request debriefing or lodge complaints before contracts are finalised.
Despite these measures, the SGF’s latest circular acknowledges that violations continue. The document states that “several Federal Government Owned Enterprises and Corporations continue to procure and award contracts without recourse to the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007,” a practice it says has resulted in “contract sums that are above established pricing benchmarks, captive markets for exclusive contractors, significant departure from approved guidelines and absence of critical regulatory oversight, amongst other lapses.”
One reform that appears to be yielding results is the BPP’s price intelligence and benchmarking initiative, introduced about two years ago. Adedokun said the department verifies project costs against fair pricing standards globally, using trained professionals to cost projects independently.
“If a government agency prices a project and it comes to the BPP, we benchmark it. Through benchmarking, we can arrive at what we consider a fair price for that project,” he said in an interview in August 2026.
According to the bureau, the initiative saved the Federal Government about N1.4tn in 18 months. The BPP also disclosed that its procurement reviews saved more than N303bn, $304.9m and €1.74m from inflated contract costs between January and September 2025. Adedokun said contractors had increasingly sought guidance on acceptable price ranges rather than risk having their bids rejected for exceeding benchmarks.
The government has also introduced tougher measures against contractors involved in fraud, corruption, falsification of documents and persistent failure to execute public contracts. Under the National Guideline on Debarment of Contractors, Consultants and Service Providers, contractors found culpable may be barred from participating in federal procurement for between three and five years.
But the recurrence of warnings suggests that enforcement remains the weakest link. The latest circular does not specify what form sanctions will take, who will apply them, or within what timeframe. It places responsibility on accounting officers, the heads of agencies who also serve as custodians of procurement compliance, and directs that the circular be brought to their attention “for immediate and strict compliance.”
Among those copied on the circular were the Chief of Staff to the President, the Deputy Chief of Staff, the Principal Secretary to the President, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, all ministers and ministers of state, the National Security Adviser, the Economic Adviser to the President, the Chief of Defence Staff, service chiefs, and the chairmen of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Police Service Commission, Code of Conduct Bureau, Code of Conduct Tribunal, Federal Character Commission, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Also copied were the chairmen of the National Population Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, as well as all permanent secretaries, the Clerk of the National Assembly, the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, the Accountant General of the Federation, the Auditor General for the Federation, and directors general and chief executives of parastatals, agencies and government owned companies.
The Public Procurement Act, 2007, established the BPP as the regulatory authority responsible for monitoring and overseeing public procurement activities, setting standards and ensuring that public procurement is conducted transparently and competitively.
Section 15 of the Act, as amended by the Finance Act, 2020, expanded its application to include federal government owned enterprises, corporations, councils, authorities and commissions, provided they utilise public funds. Section 20 places responsibility for procurement compliance on accounting officers.
Whether the latest directive will succeed where previous ones have not may depend on whether sanctions are actually applied, and whether the BPP is given the resources and independence to monitor compliance across the vast network of federal agencies and government owned enterprises.
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