By Abdulrasheed Hammad

Open Contracting Portals in Nigeria are online platforms designed to provide transparent and accessible information regarding public procurement processes and contracts. The objective is to promote open contracting practices, enhance accountability, and reduce corruption within the Nigerian public procurement system. These portals serve as centralised repositories of data and documents related to government contracts, enabling citizens, civil society organisations, and businesses to monitor and scrutinise government spending. This investigation looks at the portal of each state as well as the responsiveness of the relevant agency.

FATIMAH Idera is employed as a project tracker in Ondo State, working for UDEME, a social accountability platform in Nigeria.

In her first month on the job, she was assigned five projects to track. However, when she accessed the Ondo State Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) portal,  they did not upload any documents to the website, thereby hindering the public’s ability to hold the government accountable. She could not access the vital Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) and e-procurement portal.

Situations like the unavailability of the OCDS and e-procurement portal not only hindered Fatimah’s ability to perform her duty as a  project tracker but are also depriving citizens of the opportunity to monitor how their taxes funds are utilised effectively.

The difficulty in tracking project documents on the OCDS and e-procurement portal has been raising concerns.

The Ondo state instance reflects how Nigerian state governments generally make their open contracting portals inaccessible and thereby preventing citizens from holding government officials accountable.

This hinders monitoring of the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending and makes it difficult to identify instances of fraud, waste, or mismanagement.

Typically, open contracting portals include a wide array of information, such as tender notices, bidding documents, contract awards, terms and conditions, contractor details, project implementation specifics, and payment information.

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Nigerian state governments were compelled to sign agreements and pass procurement laws, committing them to publish their expenditures to enable them to receive grants over a three-year period from the World Bank. Unfortunately, some of these portals are inaccessible or lack details on awarded contracts in the respective states. Some portals pose security risks, Some portals only provide partial information on their website, and others are difficult to navigate.

How state governments make open contracting portals inaccessible, hiding awarded contracts from citizens

The investigations showed that the Kwara State e-procurement portal was inaccessible as it was blank (showing only white) when the reporter accessed it.

There were no details of contracts awarded by the state government.

The Safari browser warned against proceeding to access the Sokoto state e-procurement portal because the website certificate expired over 301 days ago, warning that an attacker can compromise the reporter’s connection.

Enugu, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Katsina, Ebonyi, Taraba, and Benue did not have the state’s e-procurement portal because most of them were not found, while some were not operational, showing ‘404-Not found’.

E-procurement portals like that of Ondo, Oyo, Kogi, and Rivers states were accessible but failed to provide any details on awarded contract.

The Oyo State e-procurement Facebook account only has six followers with no posts.

For some states, the problem is that vital procurement details were not provided making nonsense of the launch of the portals.

Abia, Bayelsa, Bauchi, and Gombe states uploaded incomplete information on the contract the governments  awarded  as  contractor’s details and contract sums were not provided. only project titles and procurement entities were provided.

Ekiti uploaded incomplete data that did not provide the project locations and the award dates.

Jigawa state only uploaded the details of only one project under the Ministry of Water and Resources.

Akwa Ibom state did not have an official open contracting portal.

The open contracting portal of Adamawa, Edo, Osun, Anambra, Niger State, Bornu, Zamfara, Delta, Kano, Kaduna, Cross River, Ogun, Imo, and Yobe states  were accessible.

However, the Lagos State e-procurement portal is accessible with details of awarded contracts, but there is no email address to contact the BPP.

Plateau state BPP portal is also accessible, but it only has four followers on the official Facebook account and the Twitter account is not accessible at all.

In summary ten  states’ open contracting portals were inaccessible, while three states were accessible without uploading the details on awarded contracts. Six states uploaded partial information, one state did have an official portal, and only 16 states made their portal accessible to citizens.

The state of African countries’ portals

To verify the status of open contracting portals in African countries,  the reporter examined the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) portals of Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Niger Republic, Benin Republic, Cameroon, and Kenya.

The Ghana Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) claims to have 8,582 executed contracts and 14,375 tenders. However, the link to check the contracts was inaccessible and showed that the site cannot be reached.

The Gambia Public Procurement Authority’s portal was accessible, but failed to upload details of the awarded contracts in the country.

Senegal has a Public Procurement Portal (www.marchéspublics.sn) where relevant legislation and information on procurements can be found.

Decree No. 2014-1212 ensures the protection of the general interest and public funds, promotes transparency in procurement procedures, and ensures fair competition among candidates.

However, when the reporter checked the portal the IP address of the site could not be found. The investigation also revealed that the second portal was accessible, but the details uploaded in the contract had nothing to do with procurement.

Sierra Leone Ministry of Finance website

The Cameroon Public Procurement Authority (CPPA) did not upload details of the contracts awarded by the government. On the other hand, the Benin Procurement Bureau (BPB) stated on its website that the contract awards and the awarded contracts relating to COVID-19 would be available soon. Additionally, the investigation revealed that the Niger Republic does not have an official Public Procurement portal.

But it is not a sad story all over the continent in terms of procurement transparency, as at least three countries had provided actionable information and data to citizens. For example, the Sierra Leone National Public Procurement Authority’s portal is accessible, and the department uploaded the details of the awarded contracts.

The same applies to Kenya, where the portal is accessible and contract details have been uploaded. The Public Procurement and Concessions Commission for Liberia is also accessible, and there are available contracts on the portal.

How Nigerian states’ BPP are responding to Citizens’ requests on email

To confirm how Nigerian state governments’ BPP departments are responding to the citizens’ requests via email address, this reporter sent an email to the various state BPPs requesting information on the 2021 and 2022 contracts awards and asking states whose BPP portals were inaccessible why that was so.

Only a few states responded to emails. Some emails were not delivered because the domain of the email could not be found. Some Nigerian open contracting portals do not even have official email addresses on their websites.

Seventeen BPP departments failed to respond to the email and form filled out on their website, respectively. The states are Abia, Bauchi, Ogun, Jigawa, Lagos, Gombe, Nassarawa, Kwara, Bayelsa, Kogi, Oyo, Sokoto, Borno, Kano, Imo, Edo and Yobe.

The email sent to Cross River, Kebbi, Zamfara, Anambra, and Osun State BPP were not delivered because the domain could not be found.

Some states’ BPP whose portals were not accessible and did not have official email addresses included Benue, Akwa Ibom, Taraba, Ebonyi, Katsina and Enugu.

Out of 36 states in Nigeria, only five responded to emails sent. The states are Adamawa, Kaduna, and Ekiti Ondo and Ogun.

Adamawa State BPP replied that they have published the details of awarded contracts this reporter requested on their website, and advised the reporter to check their websites bpp.ad.gov.ng and ocds.bpp.ad.gov.ng for more information.

Ondo state BPP replied to the email stating that the link the journalist provided in the mail is for the portal of Ondo State Bureau of Public Procurement (ODBPP), noting that e-procurement portal is a different portal and it is currently down.

When this reporter clicked the link, he saw a Safari browser warning that the website’s certificate expired over 172 days ago, adding that an attacker could compromise this reporter’s connection.

An engineer, Suleiman Abba, the Acting  Director, of Planning & Reforms, Kaduna State Public Procurement Authority (KADPPA), said the department has made concerted efforts to make relevant information easily accessible to the public, including the details of the awarded contract on their open contracting data standard (OCDS) portal.

Abba explained that other pieces of information had also been provided in the annual report of the state. This, the reporter confirmed to be the case.

Ekiti State BPP replied that both the previous and follow-up emails the reporter sent were duly noted, adding that the issues relating to the reporter’s inquiries had been resolved on the OCDS portal.

They advised the reporter to revisit it for confirmation. This reporter revisited the website, and he confirmed that the issues have been rectified.

The Ogun State Bureau of Public Procurement replied that the email had been received but said it would prefer a letter on letterhead addressed to the Director-General of the state.

Fifty-two per cent of Nigerian States failed to respond to emails sent to them, 14 per cent of the email sent didn’t deliver to the recipient, 19 per cent of Nigerian BPP doesn’t have an official email address while only 13 per cent responded to the email sent to them.

Implications…

The deputy coordinator of project tracking for Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENETSUD), Lanre Osho, said that the inaccessibility of these portals is a form of corruption.

“ENETSUD has been raising concerns about this matter in Kwara state and has been engaging with the government for a considerable period of time. The anti-corruption civil society organisations heavily rely on documents, and having access to these portals would enable us to evaluate and assess whether the projects align with the allocated funds,” he said.

Osho condemned this practice as a clear instance of corruption and undemocratic behaviour, asserting that it obstructs the work of civil society organisations and hinders their activities, stating that ENETSUD has been advocating for the domestication of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) in Kwara state.

He said whenever ENETSUD writes a letter to the Kwara state government requesting information about awarded contracts, the government responds by stating that the FOI Act needs to be domesticated before they can provide the requested details.

Furthermore, he highlighted the World Bank’s emphasis on fiscal transparency and accountability, which requires states seeking grants to hold town hall meetings to obtain citizen input before formulating the budget at the state level. However, he noted that the situation is reversed when it comes to the e-procurement portal, as it lacks the necessary transparency and accountability.

Abubakar Ismail Kankara, a journalist who works in the ICT sector, explained that the reason some reasons why the website is down.

He noted that if the connection of the website is not private or it is showing ‘404 Not Found’ as found in some state procurement websites, it was because the developer of the website failed to install a security plug that would ensure that the privacy of visitors is protected.

He added that “It is the issue of HTTP and HTTPS, and HTTP is not secured because your information can be accessed and transferred out to anybody. If it is migrated to HTTPS, it would be secure and friendly to users.

“The browser is trying to protect you and your confidentiality while the 404 not found appears if the site is not active either due to an issue with the hosting company or the webpage is not available, which sometimes is a deliberate attempt to hide information from citizens or both the domain and the hosting has expired,” he said.

He added that the website is mostly managed by quacks and non-professionals because they only awarded the contracts to their political allies in the form of paying them back their suffering or contributions during campaigns.

The programme lead and Data Analyst with Dataphyte, Charles Mbah, stated that the States started publishing their contract data through the state fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability (SFTAS) programme of the government, which focuses on strengthening the fiscal sustainability, transparency and accountability of Nigerian states.

He said the programme gives grants to states based on different deliverables that enable these states to make their fiscal transaction, such as budget, contract budget implementation, and audit documents open for citizens to access them.

He explained that the OCDS portal is a civic technology tool that can be used to hold the government to account for its expenditure of public funds, noting that it is supposed to contain all contract details from planning, tender, and contract award to implementation of different projects.

“Having procurement information of this nature open for everyone to access has the possibility to reduce the rate of corruption in the procurement process. This is the reason why most states do not have this information or make the OCDS portal inaccessible in order to stop citizens from scrutinizing the procurement process and holding the government to account,” he said.

He cited an example of the Oyo State OCDS portal, which is no longer accessible to citizens after numerous stories written by organisations such as Dataphyte about the procurement irregularities in the states that sometimes involve the governor, adding that if the states do not have their OCDS portal accessible, they have something to hide and do not want to be held accountable.

Stanley Achonu, the Nigerian Country Director of One Campaign and former Operation Lead for Budgit, stated that as part of the World Bank programme, state governments were compelled to pass procurement laws and other transparency laws in order to receive grants for a three-year period. These grants were intended for the development of healthcare facilities, schools, hospitals, and other projects. However, since the program ended, the actual implementation of the law by the state governments has been lacking.

Achonu noted that there is a lack of awareness among citizens regarding the requirements of procurement laws. Additionally, he pointed out that State Houses of Assembly have failed to hold the state governors accountable for any breaches of procurement law.

“It is crucial to note that any procurement conducted by the state governors that do not adhere to the procurement law is a violation, and the state governor is legally responsible. The question arises as to who will hold these state governors accountable for their failure to comply with the laws enacted by the State Houses of Assembly and signed by the governor?” he noted.

Achonu suggested that for the procurement portal to be effective, State Houses of Assembly should initiate investigations into government contracts and question the contract award processes, noting that by doing so, it would become evident that the law is not being followed. He emphasized that when a governor or any arm of the state government fails to comply with the law, the governor who appointed the officials will be held responsible.

“Non-compliance with the law is an impeachable offence, which means the governor cannot spend money that is not appropriated in the budget or arbitrarily award contracts in violation of state laws. If found guilty during an impeachment trial, the governor can be removed from office,” he noted.

This report is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, The ICIR.