Ambode Tasks CEOs of Federal Agencies to Be Above Board

Fri, Mar 18, 2016
By publisher
3 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Political Briefs

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AKINWUNMI Ambode, Lagos State governor, has tasked the chief executives officers, CEOs, of federal agencies to be above board and always put the interest of the people first in all their official activities.

The Governor, who disclosed this in his keynote address at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja during a Procurement Retreat organised for chief executive officers of Federal Government Parastatals, urged them to use the opportunity of the retreat to fine tune the process and procedure of doing things in their various organisations towards promoting good governance, transparency and accountability in the management of public funds.

Governor Ambode, who was represented by Tunji Bello, secretary to the State Government, stated that the present administration in the State has declared zero tolerance for wastage in public finance through strict adherence to the Treasury Single Account, TSA, system for probity and accountability.

“Corrupt practices that rendered our national economic and infrastructural development comatose necessitated that a transparent and measurable system of applying public finances be developed”.

“This decision is further justified by the drastic reduction in the revenue that accrues to the national purse as well as States and Local Governments. It is therefore imperative that we embrace global standards of prudent management of resources with a view to maximizing value for money spent”, he added.

Ambode stated that Nigeria, like many other nations across the world, is being challenged by the vagaries of the emerging world economic order, stressing that the situation calls for concerted efforts and creative thinking on the part of all, most especially, policy drivers and implementers.

The Governor said in 2003, the State Government took the initiative of collaborating with the World Bank by conducting an assessment of the state procurement process which was further reviewed in 2010 leading to the adoption of part of the World Bank report.

He informed them that since the commencement of the Procurement Law in Lagos, in April 2014, several reforms have been introduced to address the challenges that were encountered during the implementation stages.

According to him, “Some of the key reforms include the provision for the cadre of Public Procurement Officers in the public service, adoption of standard bidding documents, call and opening of bids by tender in public, provision of adjudicatory mechanism for resolution of complaints and constitution of an administration board for the Procurement Agency”.

He added that “All of these have resulted in improved public trust, investors’ confidence, and better collaboration with multilateral development and donor agencies”.

Governor Ambode therefore expressed the hope that the decisions reached at the retreat will impact positively on the lives of Nigerians and the fortunes of the nation.

—  Mar 28, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT

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