SENATE PASSES TWO PROCUREMENT BILLS FOR SECOND READING
The Senate on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 passed for second reading two Bills and two Motions; both Bills were intended to amend the already existing Public Procurement Act for efficiency and effectiveness. The Senate observed that both Bills were similar in nature and sought to address Public Procurement Act shortcomings; decided to consolidate the Bills into one for the purpose of debating their general principles. The two legislation whose general principles were deliberated upon include:
1) A Bill for an Act to Amend the Public Procurement Act to provide for and adopt a Local Content Policy and Timely Completion of Procurement Process and for other related matters, 2016 (S.B. 232), sponsored by Sen. Sam Egwu (Ebonyi North).
2) A Bill for an Act to Amend the Public Procurement Act to provide for and adopt a Local Content Policy and Timely Completion of Procurement Process and for other related matters, 2016 (S.B. 238), sponsored by Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South).
The Bills enjoyed the overwhelming support of distinguished Senators that lent their voices in favour; among whom were Senators Sam Egwu, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Ajayi Boroffice, Ben Murray Bruce, Chukwuka Utazi and the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Similarly, the Red Chamber also considered and passed two Motions during plenary session:
1) Incessant Kano Markets’ Inferno of Sabon Gari, Singer, Kwari and Kano GSM markets,sponsored by Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and 24 others.
Sen. Kwankwaso expressed concern over the perennial occurrence of fire outbreak in recent time in Kano, Sokoto, Birnin Kebbi, Kaduna, Gashua, Ibadan, Warri, Minna, Yola, Jos, Ado Ekiti, Ikom in Cross River State, Lagos and gas explosions in Port Harcourt and Nnnewi, Anambra State. The Motion scaled through with six prayers that include:
a) Call on the States and Local Governments to constitute a Special Task Force that will be saddled with the responsibility of investigating the incessant fire outbreak in public places across the country.
b) Call on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to embark on a national campaign on the need for the public to strictly adhere to national fire safety code in order to prevent the perennial occurrence of fire outbreak.
c) Urge the three tiers of government – Federal, State and Local Government councils to provide their Fire Service Departments with requisite state of the art firefighting equipment, introduce routine training and motivation strategies of the fire service staff so that they can respond more efficiently during fire outbreak.
d) Urge the traders and government to look into the possibility of introducing an insurance coverage scheme for the markets and traders.
e) Call on the Federal Government and other Regulatory Agencies to evolve and enforce modern means of preventing and combating fire disasters by ensuring that all markets are built with plan plans to prevent outbreak of fire incident and property equipped with modern firefighting equipment to ensure that our people are not subjected to this kind of distressing loss.
f) Urge the Federal Government and other Corporate Bodies to come to the aid of the Sabon Gari and four other Markets’ traders by providing them with grants to continue sustaining a livelihood as well as contribute to the nation gross domestic product.
2) The Urgent Need for Effective Implementation of the Joint Venture Cash Calls Obligations by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Accordance with the Appropriation Act of the National Assembly, sponsored by Sen. Bassey Albert Akpan and all the members of Senate Committee on Gas.
Sen. Akpan observed that the persistent constraint by the NNPC to meet its cash calls obligations which have taken a turn for the worse on the country’s crude oil production output and sundry activities in the oil and gas sector prompted need for this motion. He averred that it is illegal and unconstitutional for the NNPC to spend funds it generated without recourse to legislative appropriation.
The Motion sailed through with only one resolution below:
a) Mandate the Committees on Gas, Petroleum Upstream, Finance and Appropriation to investigate the operations of the NNPC Joint Venture Cash Calls Obligations.