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*Nigeria: Port Harcourt Chamber Decries Absence of Members On RSBoPP Board

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Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, PHCCIMA has decried the non-inclusion of its members on the board of Rivers State Bureau of Public Procurement, (RSBoPP).

President of the PHCCIMA, Engr. Vincent Adonye Kingston Furo made this observation last Wednesday when a delegation of the Rivers State Bureau of Public Procurement, (RSBoPP) visited the office of PHCCIMA in Port Harcourt . He stressed that the constitution of the body is faulty considering that the role of the chamber as the mouth piece of the organized private sector was not taken into cognizance. ” The significance of the chamber cannot be over emphasized, especially in an economy as huge as that of Rivers state” he said, underlining the need to actively involve PHCCIMA in the affairs of the board.

The PHCCIMA helmsman maintained that Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce has the capacity and array of professionals cutting across all fields of endeavour to merits its pride of place in the RSBBoPP board whose responsibility is that of setting standards, regulating, monitoring and overseeing public procurement in Rivers state. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Map of Nigeria showing Port Harcourt

Her also told the delegation to work in synergy with the chamber to ensure that all establishment, including construction companies doing business in Rivers state embrace, register and identify with the chamber to enable it assume its oversight function for the business community in the state. Engr. Furo urged the Director General to take the message back to the relevant authorities to make them see the need to have the chamber members among the RSBoPP board.

Director General of the Rivers state Bureau of Public Procurement, Barr. Franklin Nlerum who had spoken earlier said the objective of the visit to PCCIMA was to share with them the essentials of the public procurement reforms in the state. He said it has become expedient to visit to introduce the emergent regime from the public procurement Law which entered into force in May 2008 and to seek input from the chamber as a critical shareholder group in the implementation plan for the regime.

Nlerum defined Public Procurement as an overall process of acquiring goods, works or services by government or anybody funded from the public resources which he said covers the entire spectrum from identification of needs through selection of the apt alternative for meeting the need, and timely in a cost effective manner. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Map of Nigeria showing its 36 states, including Rivers State and Federal capital (Abuja or FCT)

He said the reforms are not entirely new but is particularly concerned with essential aspects derive from existing but ignored practice, explaining that the objective of the regime is to ensure that public expenditure results in value. “ PHCIMA is to further the business community and the interest of the business community are better served in an environment as contemplated by law in transparency, equity and competition.

The Director General stated that PHCCIMA as the second oldest chamber in Nigeria is not only strategic but also an important body considering its role of advocacy for the business community and its resolve to unlock new vistas of business opportunities in the state.

“RSBoPP has the mandate of ensuring transparency accountability, competition, economy, fitness for purpose and to achieve value for money through the public procurement reforms” Nlerum was quoted as saying, asserting the need for integrity, good character and discipline in our attitude to service and work as attributes that largely determines our progress and accomplishment.

Though Barr. Nlerum promised to take the Chamber observation to the Rivers state House of Assembly and other relevant authorities that were involved with the constitution of the body; he urged the chamber to do more by contributing their quota for the overall progress of the state.

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