Abandoned projects waste of taxpayers’ money — NRS chairman

The Chairman of Joint Revenue Board (JRB) and the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Dr Zacch Adedeji

The Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Zacch Adedeji, has described abandoned government projects as a waste of taxpayers’ money and pledged financial and technical support for proposed reforms to Nigeria’s public procurement law.

Mr Adedeji made the pledge on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Adebowale Adedokun, and his delegation to discuss proposed amendments to the Public Procurement Act 2007.

“Anytime I see abandoned projects, I see it as tax collected and being wasted, because it is either paid from the tax collected or the loan that we’ve taken that we’ll use tax to pay in the future,” he said.

Mr Adedeji said the NRS would provide personnel, funding and technical expertise to support the reforms, drawing on its experience implementing Nigeria’s recent tax changes.

“I am also publicly promising that we will not only give you human resources, but God’s will, we will provide financial resources.”

He argued that Nigerians would be more willing to pay taxes if they could see public revenue translated into completed infrastructure and improved public services.

According to him, effective procurement is central to ensuring that government spending produces tangible benefits rather than leaving projects unfinished despite the expenditure of public funds.

He also questioned whether some provisions of the existing procurement law, including restrictions on advance payments and contract approval thresholds, remained appropriate under current economic conditions.

He directed service officials to establish a technical committee to work with the BPP on the proposed amendments.

Mr Adedokun, the BPP director-general, said the bureau was pursuing at least 29 reforms that, in its view, could not be accommodated under the existing law without amendments.

“We are undertaking, for the first time in the history of this country, not less than 29 reforms in procurement,” he said.

“The current state of the Procurement Act cannot accommodate the 29 minimum reforms,” he added.

The proposed changes include electronic procurement, community-based contracting, sector-specific procurement procedures and measures to improve access to public contracts for women, young people, persons with disabilities and military veterans.

Under the proposed community-based contracting arrangement, smaller government contracts could be made accessible to businesses within their localities, reducing the need for contractors to travel to Abuja to participate in procurement processes.

Mr Adedokun said the proposed electronic procurement system would digitise processes from assessment to payment, aiming to improve transparency and facilitate the collection of applicable taxes at source.

He also said the bureau launched a digital capacity-building platform for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to improve their understanding of public procurement requirements.

According to him, applying similar procurement procedures across different sectors can create difficulties because projects often have distinct technical requirements.

He defended the Federal Government’s revision of procurement approval thresholds, saying chief executives could approve certain contracts below N10 billion and goods and services contracts below N5 billion, subject to applicable rules.

He argued that rigid interpretations of procurement regulations had contributed to delays and abandoned projects, citing the NRS headquarters as an example of how addressing procurement challenges could help deliver public infrastructure.

He said the bureau intervened in the long-abandoned Federal Ministry of Agriculture headquarters project to help complete it.

Mr Adedokun warned government agencies against bypassing procurement requirements, stressing that they must obtain the bureau’s certificate of no objection where required.

He called for a comprehensive national database of contractors to improve oversight, strengthen tax compliance and prevent revenue leakages.

“We are not after lowest cost, but after value for money,” he said.

He explained that the lowest-priced bid was not always the best option, as a more expensive proposal could deliver better quality and value over the life of a project.

He also sought the NRS’s support for professional training, proposed legislative amendments, and efforts to expand the bureau’s institutional presence nationwide.

The Group Director of the NRS Support Services Group, Kunle Ogidi, noted that the bureau had helped the revenue agency with procurement documentation, compliance training and project execution.

“Countless times, the bureau has sent their officers to come and teach and tutor us on how to go about some of these processes,” he said.

Mr Ogidi said the engagement would allow both agencies to identify shortcomings in the existing framework and recommend changes to address them.

The Public Procurement Act 2007 provides the legal framework for procurement by federal ministries, departments and agencies. It established the BPP to regulate public procurement and promote transparency, competition and value for money.

Concerns about abandoned and poorly executed public projects continue to raise questions about how the government spends and monitors funds.

In February, PREMIUM TIMES reported that a 2024/2025 project-tracking report by Tracka, BudgIT’s citizen-led monitoring platform, found that 92 federally funded projects worth N15.07 billion were classified as fraudulently delivered. The report also found that 471 projects were not executed and 99 were abandoned, despite budgetary allocations.

Tracka monitored 2,760 projects across 28 states. It said the fraudulently delivered projects included cases involving diverted funds, projects moved to unintended locations, payments for work completed in earlier budget cycles, partial completion, and substandard execution.

The findings highlight the importance of monitoring projects after contracts are awarded and ensuring that public spending translates into completed infrastructure and services.

The proposed amendments to the procurement law are intended to support the BPP’s planned reforms. However, the proposals still require the relevant legislative process before they can become law.