Institute lauds Obasanjo for institutionalising procurement practice

The Registrar, Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management of Nigeria (CIPSMN), Alhaji M.J. Aliyu, has lauded former President Olusegun Obasanjo for institutionalising procurement practice in Nigeria.

He recalled that prior to 2007, practitioners of procurement and supply chain management were neither chartered nor given a deserved recognition, especially within government circle.

Aliyu noted that things were made worse by the lopsided nature of practice and non-acceptance by the society, resulting in a number of avoidable social, technological, economical, environmental, political and professional challenges in the polity.

CIPSMN chief, who gave commendation yesterday in Abuja while addressing members of the Batch B 2017 Mandatory Proficiency Development Programme, said Obasanjo left no one in doubt about the determination of his administration to effect fundamental changes to governance in his inaugural address on May 29, 1999.

He said: ‘’ Right from his inaugural speech on May, 29, 1999, Obasanjo made it clear that there was going to be changes in the philosophy of managing government business and thereby invited the World Bank to render help. The agency, therefore, commissioned study popularly called Country Procurement Assessment Report (CPAR).

According to him, the effort revealed a lot of endemic flaws in financial regulations and proffered lasting solutions. He added that a centralised regulatory body to control and monitor the practice and professionals was also suggested.

Aliyu relived with sadness that practitioners were hired and arbitrarily disengaged by policy makers and all manner of persons in the past.

He continued: ‘’In the past, members were hired and fired by policymakers, pen power drunks or economic despots whose power over them decreed their functions and lives. A fate that ultimately made their innocent children susceptible to rejection by the society.”

He, however, enjoined members to be efficient, effective and professional in view of the importance of the discipline to the robust growth and development of the nation.

The institute’s president, Alhaji A.D. Oyewo, cautioned the professionals against unethical conduct in the course of duty.

He reminded the participants that the programme was designed to enable them tap from the experience of their senior colleagues, adding that the success in the institute’s certificate examination was just the beginning of their knowledge of the profession.

‘’We must be ethical with employers, suppliers, profession and persons,’’ Oyewo urged.