Due process: FG to prosecute offending ministries, departments

Gbola Subair, Abuja - 30.06.2009

FOR flouting the due process modalities in the award of public contracts, the Federal Government has disclosed that some ministries, department and agencies are to be prosecuted.

Also, for exhibiting remorse, the government said it had pardoned two other ministries and asked them to sin no more as far as due process adherence was concerned.

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Micheal Aondoakaa, made this disclosure at a two-day National Forum on Procurement, organised by the Bureau of Public Procurement.

Aondoakaa, who stated that almost 80 per cent of corruption in the public service arose from contract inflation or non- delivery of items, bias and undue influence to the bidding process among others, disclosed that it was necessary to strengthen the capacity of the Bureau to fight corruption effectively.

Disclosing that it was in the light of this that the government established the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPR), the minister said the BPR Act had simplified the issue of corruption in the public service, stressing that it had prescribed punishment for any offence committed.