Abubakar harps on due process for equipment, materials procurement

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, says the service will continue to follow due process in the procurement of its equipment and materials.
Abubakar said this at a one-day Leadership Workshop at the NAF Headquarters on Thursday in Abuja.
He said that in 2014 and 2015 NAF used to procure its equipment and materials through a NAF Tenders Board, a procurement which was hitherto adjudged not being sufficiently transparent enough and not in consonance with global best practices.
He explained that as a result of that, the service decided to institute various changes in the procurement process and procedure within the ambit of the Public Procurement Act 2007.
The CAS explained further that all the efforts were to ensure transparency and integrity of the system.
He said that the efforts led to the establishment of a Directorate of Procurement, tasked with the responsibility of coordinating all procurement activities in NAF.
Abubakar said the Directorate was staffed with well-trained technical and legal personnel to ensure that NAF obtained value for money spent and at the same time adhered to the rule of law.
He said: “NAF is vigorously following through the government’s directive to deal directly with foreign government, that is, government-to-government, Original Equipment Manufacturers and Authorised Equipment Maintenance Repair Organisations.
“In the acquisition of spare and maintenance of the service equipment rather than with some third-party organisations.”
He acknowledged the fact that in spite of all the efforts put in place, there had been challenges, especially in dealing with some governments.
The CAS added that one of his visions was to re-position NAF into a highly professional and disciplined force the country could be proud of.
Abubakar said: “Some of our enduring key drivers have remained capacity building through a robust and result-oriented training for enhanced professional performance, and re-enforcing the culture of self-reliance and prudent management of resources.
“Consequently, we have taken numerous steps to build the capacity of our procurement staff; several of them have undergone training and courses both at home and abroad.
“All these are geared toward ensuring professionalism and transparency in our procurement process.”
He added that it was the quest to further strengthen transparency in the procurement process that informed the one-day workshop in conjunction with Transparency International.
Abubakar expressed optimism that at the end of the workshop, NAF would have been better informed on international best practices as it related to procurement.
The Senior Advisor, Transparency International, Ian Andrews, expressed delight for being part of the programme and said NAF would gain a lot at the end of the workshop.
Andrews said that TI was an organisation saddled with the responsibility of ensuring transparency “in everything we do”, especially, the way various governments and organisations operate.
He said: “We make sure people are free of corruption charges and abuse of power for selfish gains.
“We also study the workings of organisations, various governments, understand them very well, and if there is any traces of corruption, we proffer solutions on the way forward.”
He said further that the workshop would no doubt enable NAF to be more acquainted with how to be transparent, especially in area of procurement process for the acquisition of its military equipment and materials.