Ebonyi State government has debunked awarding N4.1bn projects without bidding processes to make the projects competitive.
The state Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Jude Okpor made this known while reacting to online publication that it awarded the sum of N4.1bn projects without bidding process.
Okpor described the online media report as self-conceived, subjective and unresearched report designed to dish out lies and half truths to the public without recourse to the ethics of journalism.
“The state government has over some period of time, followed the reports and some clandestine activities of some of the reporters in the organisation and have come to a conclusion that the online media organization reporters are deliberate mischief-makers who for want of news content, dabble into self-conceived, subjective and unresearched reports, dishing out lies and half truths to the public without recourse to the ethics of journalism.
“We simply wish to assure them and their pay masters that their incessant media attack on Ebonyi State Government tantamounts to effort in futility as the present government can never be distracted by such infantile diatribes.
“The online media organization in the report, alleged that multiple companies were not chosen to bid for the projects. Such allegation is unfounded because it needed to have been lectured that in Open Tender, the state does not choose or select companies that will bid. All companies are allowed to submit bid for the project. It is only in selective tender that the state chooses companies that will participate in the tender. On the projects in question, the procurement method used was open tender.
“The tenders were advertised for 30 days on the state e-Procurement system, and if only one company paid tender fees and submitted a bid, that company can be awarded if their bid is responsive. Section 35 (2a) of the Ebonyi State Public Procurement Law (2020) specifies provisions to re-advertise a tender, and single bid submission is not among the conditions that should warrant re-advertising a tender.
“According to the State Public Procurement Law (2020), the Bureau of Public Procurement is not required to cancel the Tender process if only one company showed interest/ submitted bid for an open tender that has been advertised. In this case,the BPP proceeded with the evaluation and award of the project because the bids submitted were responsive.”