Ebonyi state government has partnered with Non Governmental Organizations and Civil Society Organisations to ensure transparency and accuracy in all Government projects and activities.
The Executive Secretary of Ebonyi State Bureau of Public Procurement, Mrs. Uzoma Betty said Ebonyi State has been so open with its method of procurement.
She said this this during a 2-day workshop Organised by civil society organisation, Dataphyte Program by Data for Development in Abakaliki the State Capital.
She said Ebonyi is the only State that makes use of electronic procurement, therefore making available the procurement processes and award of contacts available online.
“Everything you need concerning procurement and contracts are in our website online for public to access.
“We have deployed all the standards in awarding contracts. The first stage is Advertisement, followed by Bid submission, tender period which would last for 30 days, Bid opening for 1 day, Bid evaluation can last for about four days and so on. All is to ensure transparency in the systems,” she said.
The Operational Manager of Dataphyte Program, Mr Charles Mbah said the workshop is for Capacity Building for Civic Actors in Ebonyi State to Mobilize Sub-national Contract Data for Effective Service Delivery in Nigeria.
“In the past, the success of tracking the performance of the contractors and ensuring it delivers on its promise of public benefits was hampered by the lack of usable data on contracts awarded to implement projects.
“However, in the last two to three years, subnational governments in Nigeria are signing up to open government partnerships and gradually subscribing to budget and contract transparency.
“For states implementing open contracting data standards (OCDS), there is an increased amount of contract data and documents based on the standard data model at all stages of the contracting process. Therefore, grassroots citizens, media and civil society organisations have increased access to contracts and can do deeper analyses of contract data.
“Also, various users are privy to information about the amount paid to contractors to carry out different projects and when such projects are meant to be completed eventually. To this end, Dataphyte proposes to support citizens and other civic actors in Ebonyi State to use contract data published on open contracting data portals of their states to track, report and demand project delivery to the more prominent residents of the states,“ Mbah said.
