Halilu Tasks NASENI Procurement Officers On Agency Goals

The Executive Vice Chairman of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Khalil Suleiman Halilu, has said that achieving the Agency’s goals requires a high level of professional proficiency and technical expertise in procurement management.

This is essential to achieve the overall mandate and goals.

In his welcome address at the opening ceremony of the 2024 three-day in-house training for procurement officers and other participating staff from NASENI system-wide, which commenced on Tuesday in Abuja, he stated that the Agency wanted to be the best in everything it does to deliver quality services to achieve the overall goals of Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

The EVC/CEO while highlighting the importance of the training, said it was designed to equip officers involved in procurement with the professional capacity needed to manage NASENI’s procurement processes effectively and in full compliance with the Public Procurement Act 2007.

While assuring that NASENI was committed to complying with everything outlined in the Act, he said “the importance of the workshop cannot be overstated, particularly for newly hired or deployed officers. Incumbent officers must be trained to align with NASENI’s vision and mandate.”

He admonished participants to put into practice what they would learn in their daily work and how they carry out their roles and responsibilities, urging them to take the training seriously and gain from the extensive knowledge and experience of the resource persons, leading to improved service delivery.

Also, in his keynote address Ag. Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Barr. Olusegun Omotola represented by the Director of Training, Adebowale Adedokun, said NASENI has a crucial role in national infrastructure development thus building skills and competencies is critical for the execution of transparent and efficient public procurement which guarantees good value for money.

He noted that every government agency must comply with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Circulars on procurement plans and records and that no procurement process could commence without properly approved procurement plan via the use of the NOCOPO system and must have a full-fledged procurement department/unit/division manned by BPP trained/certified officers.

In addition, he urged NASENI to be very thorough and careful in the discharge of its responsibilities in the public procurement process with the highest sense of accountability, ethics and integrity, saying it is expected that at the end of the training, all factors militating against effective performance of procurement related activities and budget implementation would have been addressed.