BPP Unveils e-Government Procurement System

The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has commenced the process of implementing a unified e-Government Procurement (e-GP) system that will integrate with existing systems to provide a centrally and unitary collaborative government procurement platform for all public procurement at the federal level.

The implementation of the e-GP system will follow a phased approach to cover the entire public procurement lifecycle in line with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, related regulations and government Information Communication Technology (ICT) policies, and other standards.

A top presidency official familiar with the system told journalists weekend that based on the phased implementation approach, the BPP had developed a number of innovative IT solutions to improve public procurement practice and enhance its oversight functions.

According to him, the IT solutions, some of which were deployed since 2010 and have undergone series of upgrades include the National Database of Contractors, Consultants and Service Providers (ND-CCSP) Nigeria Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO).

The National Database was created in line with the provisions of Section 5(h) of the Public Procurement Act (PPA 2007), which mandates the Bureau to maintain a national database of particulars and classification and categorization of federal contractors and service providers.

The system serves as the first module of the e-GP sytem.

The system helps in verifying the credibility and competence of contractors, consultants and service providers (CCSPs) doing or intending to do business with the Federal Government of Nigeria.

It also helps in categorising and classifying consultants, contractors and service providers based on their capability.

In the spirit of the principles of the Executive Order-01, i.e. One-Government and ease of doing business, the BPP in collaboration with the Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC) Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), National Pension Commission (PenCom), Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has upgraded the ND-CCSP database to ensure compliance by contractors and consultants through real-time integration and exchange of data among the government agencies.