By
Seember
Nyager
Every day, through secret contracts
being carried out within public institutions, there is confirmation that the
interest of the public is not served. A few days ago, young Nigerians in Abuja
were arrested for protesting against the reckless conduct of the recruitment
exercise at the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) that led to the death of 19
applicants.
Although the protesters were later
released, the irony still stings that whilst no one has been held for the
resulting deaths from the reckless recruitment conduct, the young voices
protesting against this grave misconduct are being silenced by security forces.
Most heart-breaking is the reality that the deadly outcomes of the recruitment
exercise could have been avoided with more conscientious planning, through an
adherence to due process and diligence in the selection of consultants to carry
out the exercise.
A report released by Premium times indicates that the recruitment
exercise was conducted exclusively by the Minister of Interior who hand-picked
the consultant that carried out the recruitment exercise at the NIS. The
non-responsiveness of the Ministry in providing civic organizations including
BudgIT and PPDC with requested details of the process through which the
consultant was selected gives credence to the reports of due process being
flouted.
The non-competitive process through
which the consultant was selected is in sharp breach of the Public procurement
law and its results have undermined the concept of value for money in the award
of contracts for public services. Although a recruitment website was built and
deployed by the hired consultant, the information gathered by the website does
not seem to have informed the plan for the conduct of the recruitment exercise
across the country which left Nigerians dead in its wake.
Whilst the legality
of the revenue generated from over 710,000 applicants is questioned, it is
appalling that these resources were not used to ensure a better organized
recruitment exercise.
This is not the first time that public
institutions in Nigeria have displayed reckless conduct in the supposed
administration of public services to the detriment of Nigerians.
The
recklessness with which the Ministry of Aviation took a loan to buy highly
inflated vehicles, the difficulty faced by BudgIT and PPDC in tracking the
exact amount of SURE-P funds spent, the 20 billion Dollars unaccounted for
by the NNPC are a few of the cases where Nation building and development is
undermined by public institutions.
In the instance of the NIS recruitment
conducted three weeks ago, some of the consequences have been immediate and
fatal, yet there is foot dragging in apportioning liability and correcting the
injustice that has been dealt to Nigerians. On the same issue, public resources
have been speedily deployed to silence protesters.
It is time that our laws which require
due process and diligence are fully enforced. Peaceful protests should no
longer be clamped down because Nigerians are justified for being outraged by
any form of institutional recklessness. The Nigerian Immigration Service
recruitment exercise painfully illustrates that the outcomes of secret
contracts could be deadly and such behaviour cannot be allowed to continue. We
must stop institutional recklessness, we must stop secret
contracts.
Ms. Seember Nyager coordinates
procurement monitoring in Nigeria. Follow Nigerian Procurement Monitors at
@Nig_procmonitor.
Source: http://www.open-contracting.org
No comments:
Post a Comment