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Nigeria’s Southwest States Fail to Update Portals on Public Fund Spending Since 2022

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Despite provisions in the Procurement Laws of Nigerian States, which require their respective Bureau of Public Procurements to maintain an electronic database documenting how public funds are spent through an “open contracting portal,” fewer states in Southwestern Nigeria have updated these portals—the majority do not since 2022.

 

Findings by the Research and Investigations of this magazine found that the Oyo State Bureau of Public Procurement last updated its portal on June 09 2022, with awarded projects.

 

Since then, the agency headed by Mrs Tara Adefope, has yet to update how the Oyo State Government spent public funds on several projects embarked on in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

 

Five days ago, an email sent by our team to oyobpp@oyostate.gov.ng with info@oyostate.gov.ng in the copy, has yet to be responded to as of the time of filing this report.

Similarly, the Osun State Bureau of Public Procurement Agency portal was last updated on 09 05 2022.

 

The agency’s General Manager, Engr Oyetola Babatunde Adesina, when contacted refused to identify his identity but promised the agency’s information officer would get in touch with our team to explain the reason behind the outdated agency’s portal. Since Thursday, the agency has yet to get in touch.

 

More calls placed on Engr Babatunde’s phone were put on busy, hitherto.

 

The Lagos State Government, one of the States in Nigeria with the largest Federal Government allocations, operates a website with an expired hosting for its Bureau of Public Procurement. Even at that, the data on the State’s spending was last updated in 2020 and partly in 2021.

 

Ondo State’s Bureau of Public Procurement portal, too, has completely outdated data. Even the outdated data of the State’s spending is just one, and it is projected as still an “ongoing project,” since 2022.

 

Ogun State Government, to escape scrutiny, provided an accessible website for its Bureau of Public Procurement but with outdated data distorted.

Nigeria's Southwest States Fail to Update Portals on Public Fund Spending Since 2022

Using an internet archive, our team found that the same procurement data on the website of the Ogun State Bureau of Public Procurement in August 2022 remains on its website in December 2024.

Nigeria's Southwest States Fail to Update Portals on Public Fund Spending Since 2022

The only difference is that there was a section for the date a procurement award was made in the data on the website version in 2022. But by 2024, the date section has been removed.

 

In 2023, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) reported that the majority of Nigeria’s States have inaccessible procurement portals. Since then, there have been no significant changes; rather, more deteriorating experiences have persisted.

 

While it’s legally expected of the Nigerian States to respect the provisions of the procurement laws and create an electronic portal to make public procurement accessible to the tax-paying masses, the refusal to update public procurement portals on how public funds are spent highlights the lack of transparency and accountability in the management of taxpayers’ funds. This attempt underscores States’ transparency and hampering accountability on how public funds are spent.

 

Read Also: Data Speak: Two Nigeria’s Southwest States Finance Govrt House with ₦10.733 billion in Six Years

We tell tickling stories out of what you know for you to know them better. We're PIJAlance Research and Investigations Team. Tip us via contact us.

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