Determined to frustrate the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s goal of sanitizing the public service, some directors and senior officers of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) transferred in January and February have refused to resume in their new positions.
The Director – General of BPP, Alhaji Mamman Ahmadu had in a circular marked BPP/DG/76/1 dated 26th January,2024 transferred 54 persons to new ministries and parastatals.
According to the circular:”the deployment of these officers takes immediate effect. All handling and taking over should be completed on or before Wednesday 31st January 2024. Any disregard for this posting instruction shall be treated in accordance with the provisions of the PSR100301(b).
Also on 12th February,2024, the DG in another circular marked BPP/DG/576/11 entitled “Deployment of Procurement Officers in the Federal Civil Service”, transferred another set of 11 officers.
In the circular,Alhaji Ahmadu said :”all affected officers are advised to submit duly signed Assumption of Duty Certificates to the office of the undersigned(Alhaji Ahmadu) on or before Friday,16th February,2024.
Findings revealed that most of the Procurement Directors and Officers are well entrenched in their ministries and parastatals and are not too comfortable in the new places they were posted.
One of the affected officers was allegedly so entrenched in the corruption in his ministry that instead of resuming in the new “desert” where he was posted, she joined a Federal Government delegation to an African Country for a sports event.
Another officer was quoted as saying that he would not move an inch until the contracts in his parastatal are awarded and he gets his cut.
A junior officer in the Bureau who sought anonymity said those affected by the transfer , particularly, those transferred to ‘relatively dry lands’ have started mobilizing funds to revert the posting.
Findings also reveal that the Ministry of Sports Development and Nigeria Police Trust Fund are among the Ministries and Parastatals at the forefront of this administrative malaise.
This development is causing redundancy and discontent among other procurement officers who cannot resume work to replace the recalcitrant and “stubborn'” officers who have refused to vacate their seats for their new postings.