Nigeria Procurement Monitoring Project

The project workshop covered a great deal of complex and challenging material on an intensive basis over two long days. Although materials were circulated in advance, according to participants, only those with a good prior knowledge of procurement and some understanding of the legal provisions of the Public Procurement Act would have been able to benefit fully from the workshop. Given the centrality of this activity to the project, it would have been sensible to eliminate at least one other activity in order to fully support this one.

Ongoing activities require external funding. Given the need to maintain independence to ensure the credibility of its activities, accepting funding from the government is not an option for the grantee Although some of the longer-established NGOs are able to support some level of monitoring activity from their own resources, inevitably, the overall level of monitoring of procurement activity will decline without additional dedicated funding. Further, there is regular turnover in CSO ranks, and the level of knowledge required to be an effective monitor is significant.

Efforts to work closely with the legislature began well, with the Committee on Public Procurement of the House of Representatives willing to follow up on concrete problems identified in meetings with grantee and its allies. However, the 2011 parliamentary elections brought about a wholesale change in the membership of both houses of the National Assembly. The leading champions of reform in public procurement were defeated, and there was no longer an interest among elected members in working closely with grantee, although a positive working relationship was established with the parliamentary secretariat.

The preparation and publication of the Procurement Observation Handbook built on previous efforts. It is also being used elsewhere in West Africa, and has been provided to the World Bank IDF program and Open Society Initiative for West Africa on request for translation to French for use in French-speaking West African Countries. Feedback on the manual from those interviewed for the evaluation was extremely positive.

The project helped enhance the standing and credibility of the grantee. It was able to carry out work beyond the scope of the project. Following up on its efforts to open up the public procurement sphere to scrutiny, with the support of like-minded law firms, the grantee launched a number of public interest legal cases concerning the obligation of government bodies to release all relevant information to civil society observers. A positive result was achieved recently in one such case, concerning the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), which had refused to provide the necessary documents to an accredited monitor.

There is an important and essential relationship between the grantee and the other core organizations within the National Procurement Watch Platform. Working relationships among individuals are built around trust, mutual support and shared experience and commitment. Throughout the project, the grantee received substantial in-kind support from core members of the network, while extending support to them in return. These trust-based working relationships were one of the foundations of project effectiveness and efficiency.

The project’s internet portal that made it easy to upload monitoring reports and share information played an important role. In preparation for the design of the portal, the project also supported the peer review and updating of the existing monitoring checklist and reporting template. The development of the portal is regarded as an important achievement, not only by civil society, but also by government regulatory bodies and international donors, including the World Bank, UNDP and PACT Nigeria.