Anambra State Government has commenced payment to an international infrastructure development firm, CPCS Transcom Limited, for the designing of a railway masterplan for the state.
CPCS Transcom Limited based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, specializes in private sector participation in transportation and power infrastructure, operations, investment, policy and regulation.
The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the Anambra State Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, Architect Okey Ezeobi disclosed this while briefing newsmen, ahead of a 6-Day Capacity Building Series on the practice of public procurement for local government stakeholders, to be held in Awka, Anambra State Capital.
The training is put together by the State Bureau of Public Procurement, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs.
According to Ezeobi, 10 international organisations applied to design the State Rail Masterplan for Anambra State, from which the Canada-based firm was chosen.
“We looked at their track record after considering the technical bids, the financial bids, their domestic experience before arriving at the CPCS.
“It is also instructive to state that the CPCS had acclaimed Anambra under the leadership of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, as a forward-thinking state.
“The state has also commenced payment for Masterplan design, which will take railway all the way to the boundaries of the state. And because of the bankability and feasibility study on the railway initiative, there are investors already waiting for the masterplan to start implementation.
“So it is a thorough disruptive change.
“What the Governor envisages is that by the day Nigeria will wake up, Anambra State would have already been set for business,” he said.
Speaking on the idea behind the capacity building series for the Local Government Stakeholders, the Anambra BPP boss explained that it targets to entrench accountability and transparency in the utilization of public funds in the state, in line with the governor’s vision to ensure adequate value for money.
Ezeobi said the new direction and disruptive change the governor is bringing is one that will build back public trust in government, as the people are now made to know how their resources are spent.
“Procurement is a process that must reflect transparency. It tells the people what the government is doing and affords them enough information to interrogate them
“As public officials, the Local Government leadership must be accountable in their handling of public funds.
“Anambra State has made significant improvement in its procurement process.
“Recall that the Federal Government had earmarked about 16 framework states to train their officials on procurement process. Unfortunately, many of these states are not up and doing, with so much irregularities in the way things are done.
“But they observed that Anambra’s website has been active with relevant information and they said they want to work with Anambra State.
“That’s why the World Bank was at the State Investment Summit held recently in the State Capital.
“It is this same transparency that Mr Governor has engendered in the state governance that we want to deepen at the Local Government level.
“The entire Anambra State procurement process must be well-defined so that the ordinary Anambra person would know that the taxes collected from them are being deployed appropriately.
“We are also looking at co-opting staff of the LGAs on secondment to become staff of BPP, to enable them get the requisite training on procurement.
“The idea is that every transaction in the state must have a Certificate of No Objection, CNO, certifying that all necessary conditions and thresholds that guarantee accountability and transparency are met,” he said.
Ezeobi insisted that Governor Soludo is not like the regular governments, where the governor is thinking about himself and the his government alone, but a leader who wants to change the system to begin to work for the people.
He said; “The governor has said his government is bringing about disruptive change that will ensure that value for money is being achieved. That’s is why we have a lot of development activities going on in the state, despite the meagre allocation the state is getting from the Federal Government.
“The governor wants to introduce a system of governance like no other. At the State Investment Summit, the Governor made it clear, the direction he wants to go, which is to run a transparent and accountable system of government.
“The essence of the training is for the TC Chairmen to replicate what the governor is doing at the state level to the local governments.
“Procurement is a set of legal procedures. They are going to set a date to the commencement of the process and everyone who should take a dime of the state government, must be tax compliant.”
