One area government will be saving money is in the area of vehicle purchase. Beyond buying vehicles from local vehicle assembly companies and dealers, government will aggressively negotiate for discount, “since government will be purchasing large numbers of vehicles from them, we will get longer after sales service and maintenance from the auto companies than those who buy one or few vehicles from the auto companies.
These savings would be made possible because from now on government plans to eliminate or at worst reduce cash payments for items purchased.
Addressing journalists on the activities of the newly created Efficiency Unit of government in Abuja Tuesday, the Head, Efficiency Unit Ms. Patience Oniha disclosed that by make electronic payments for overhead items instead of cash payments, government want to enhance audit trails and be more transparent in its transactions.”
According to her, “an ongoing reform in the federal ministry of finance is the overhaul of the internal controls within the MDAs. MDAs have auditors who are supposed to validate these items before payment is made to contractors there have been significant weaknesses so that is being overhauled entirely to make sure that what we are gaining from one side we don’t lose it on the other side. So those that will implement this have to be empowered so that they don’t lose sight. Infringements on procurement will not go free.”
Ms Oniha also stated that government “will now negotiate with suppliers of goods and services under its overhead expenditure programmes so that it can buy supplies at reduced prices and in large quantities for MDAs.”
One of the strategies to be adopted by the Efficiency Unit Oniha said “is to get the factories to give us their quotations for prices so that the MDAs can patronize them. This is on the table. There is provision in the law for foreign versus local suppliers, if one is going to import and the other is going to produce locally, the procurement act will make an allowance to recognize the domestic supplier or domestically manufactured, so made in Nigeria will be prioritized.”
To give legal backing to these initiatives, Oniha said government was looking at introducing price guidelines which all MDAs are expected to adhere to.
THE NATION