RANKINGS OF TRANSPARENCY ACROSS PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA 02 October, 2013. A non-governmental organization, the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), has ranked transparency across 15 public institutions in Nigeria according to their responsiveness to requests for procurement information. With 1 representing the most transparent and 15 the least transparent, the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC), the Nigerian Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the National Automotive Council (NAC) were ranked as most transparent whilst The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal Ministry of Health were ranked as the least transparent as they did not provide any response whatsoever to requests for procurement information, neither did they provide other viable avenues for procurement information to be sought. The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency was ranked as the 2nd least transparent agency along with the Federal Ministry of Works, the Petroleum Development Technology Fund and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources whilst the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) tailed closely behind NEITI, NERC and NAC as one of the most transparent public institutions The Power Holding Company of Nigeria(PHCN) and National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) scored midway between the most transparent and the least transparent ministries. The surveyed public institutions were ranked based on four criteria which are proactive disclosure, responsiveness to requests for information, the cost of disclosure to the requester and the level of disclosure. Proactive Disclosure Of all the public institutions surveyed, none received a healthy report for proactive disclosure of procurement information as their procurement plans were not readily available. Although the Federal budget, advertisements in newspapers and advertisements are available online, it is hard to tell whether every procurement process for the year has been advertised when procurement plans cannot be accessed.

Responsiveness to Requests for Procurement Information The NERC, NAC, NEITI and REA responded within 7 and 14 days to requests for procurement information made pursuant to the FOI Act whilst FERMA responded only once to five requests for information without providing any part of the information sought. Although the NPHCDA responded to request for information, the responses took longer than 14 days. Level of Disclosure On responsiveness to information, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Ministry of Education and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation made no response to multiple requests for procurement information. On the other hand, the Federal Ministry of Works responded to a request for procurement information concerning the contract records for the Lagos-Ibadan expressway after 4 reminders. The highly anticipated response did not however, meet the expectations of the requesters as the Ministry of works only affirmed their commitment to transparency and sought to know the legal identity of the requesting organization without providing any information on the requested contract documents for the Lagos- Ibadan expressway. Regarding the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, partial information was provided concerning pre-evaluation processes; however, after the contract was awarded subsequent documents such as contract award documents, schedule of payments, etc. have not been provided despite 6 reminders to NAFDAC. Although the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has informed the requester that procurement records would be provided, the high cost of 65,000 Naira charged to inspect the records has hindered any form of access so far. Full disclosure of information has also being attained from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria although that level of disclosure took 9 months and followed a court order for the records to be disclosed. Cost of Disclosure Although the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development responded to each of the four requests for procurement information, the responses by the Ministry reiterated that the procurement information sought could only be inspected

and accessed after a fee of 65,000 was paid. It has been noted that procurement and contract records fall under the extensive proactive disclosure list provided in Section 2 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011. Consequently, public institutions who do not meet their proactive disclosure obligations ought not to require requesters to pay the cost of duplication when specific requests for information pertaining to such documents are made. PPDC’s rationale for rating transparency levels in the public procurement process has arisen because public expenditure that is budgeted for the provision of public goods is required to pass through the procurement process. Accordingly, public scrutiny at the procurement process stage is critical to value-driven delivery and performance at the stage of contract implementation. The public procurement process is also a great avenue to rate transparency because the information sought is one that is available as long as due process in the award of public contracts has been followed. As a result, it places no extra burden on the public institution to prepare documentation that has already been prepared. The Public and Private Development Centre is a citizen sector organization established to increase citizens’ participation in governance and development in a way that improves the integrity of public and private sector governance processes particularly through procurement monitoring. A table showing the various levels of transparency is shown below:

1.

2.

3. 4.

5.

6.

7.

NAME OF OVERALL PUBLIC RANKING INSTITUTION

PROACTIVE DISCLOSURE

RESPONSIVENESS TO LEVEL OF REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION DISCLOSURE

DIRECT COST OF DISCLOSURE TO REQUESTER

NIGERIAN ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION NATIONAL AUTOMATIVE COUNCIL NEITI

1st

N/A

Between 7 and 14 days

Full disclosure in 3 instalments

No costs

1st

N/A

Between 7 and 14 days

Full disclosure in 3 instalments

No costs

1st

N/A

Between 7 and 14 days

No costs

RURAL ELECTRIFICATIO N AGENCY NATIONAL PRIMARY HEALTH CARE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY: PHCN:

4th

N/A

Between 7 and 14 days

Full disclosure in 3 instalments Full disclosure in 3 instalments

5th

N/A

After 14 days

Disclosure in 3 instalments

6th

N/A

After 14 days

NATIONAL FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATIO

7th

N/A

After 14 days

Full disclosure following court order; engagement with Partial disclosure; none after 6 reminders

Requester paid cost of photocopying No costs

No costs

No costs

N AND CONTROL: 8. MINISTRY OF MINES AND STEEL DEVELOPMENT 9. MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM RESOURCES 10. PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGY FUND



10th

N/A

After 14 days

No disclosure

Required 65,000 to inspect and/or access records No costs, no info

10th

N/A

After 14 days

No disclosure

10th

N/A

After 14 days

No costs, no info

11. Federal Roads Maintenance Agency:

11th

N/A

One initial response; non-responsive thereafter

12. Federal Ministry of Works

12th

N/A

One response received after 14 days and 4 reminders.

13. MINISTRY OF HEALTH: 14. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION 15. NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION

15th

N/A

Non-responsive

No disclosure(reaso n was that commercial information existed) No disclosure (reason that the bid evaluation was still ongoing) No disclosure ( no reason provided) No disclosure

15th

N/A

No responsive

No disclosure

No costs, no info

15th

N/A

No responsive

No disclosure

No costs, no info

No costs, no info

No costs, no info

No costs, no info