The Hydro-Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) yesterday trained its members of staff in building their capacity to follow due process in procurement activities in line with extant laws.
The commission, with headquarters in Minna, Niger State, has Kebbi, Kwara, Kogi, Benue and Plateau as member states.
Director of Community and Rural Development, HYPPADEC Dr Mahmoud Muhammad spoke during training organised for the Procurement Planning Committee (PPC) members of HYPPADEC in Abuja.
The director said the mandate of HYPPADEC included ameliorating the sufferings of host communities.
According to him, to achieve the mandate of the commission, the procurement process must be in line with international best practices.
The director said the training was to ensure that extra care would be taken in carrying out procurement activities in the commission.
He said: “The training will help to update concerned officers on the need to follow procedures on procurement laws to get value for the money spent on any given project by the Federal Government,” he said.
Muhammad said the management found it critical to organise the training so that its members of staff would be knowledgeable about the Public Procurement Act of 2007.
He said: “We have to ensure that the right thing is done with the funds allocated to it. The people must enjoy the dividends of democracy.
“We wish to start on a good note and be known for doing the right thing to avert corruption. Sometimes, there might not be corruption in procurement but the members of staff can be faulted based on the premise of following a wrong procurement process.”
The Training Coordinator, Rilwan Abdulrahman, said the training was geared towards capacity development of the procurement officers, as far as the Federal Government was concerned.
Abdulrahman, a consultant to the commission, said: “The Public Procurement Act 2007 aims to promote the integrity and fairness of those procedures; to increase transparency and accountability in those procedures.
“It is also charged with the responsibility to, amongst others, provide a legal and institutional framework and professional capacity for public procurement in Nigeria.”
He added that some people may be wanted not because they stole funds, but because they did not follow due process in carrying out procurement activities.