IMPACTS OF THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT ACT 2007 ON THE PROCUREMENT OF PUBLIC PROJECTS IN NIGERIAN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

Tertiary institutions often require huge investments in capital projects for effective learning to be actualized. In Nigeria, public tertiary institutions are usually funded fully by the Federal Government through interventionist institutions like Tetfund which are usually saddled with the responsibility of providing the fund required to achieve both human and infrastructure development required for effective knowledge impartation. The public procurement system in Nigeria has over the years been known for abuse which has led to a myriad of problems including inflation, delay, poor quality of work, and outright project abandonment. Before the enactment of the Nigerian public procurement act in 2007, there were no specific procedures laid down for the procurement of public goods and services in Nigeria. The implication of this was that every procurement entity in Nigeria such as Ministries, Parastatals, and Agencies of Government was at liberty to decide and adopt any procurement method and strategy of their choice to determine and award contracts to contractors of their choice. This situation was largely responsible for the observed lapses in the procurement of public goods and services. With the advent of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) in 2007, one expected these perceived lapses to abate. This study, therefore, assesses the impact of the PPA in the procurement of public projects in the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, and Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, both Nigerian public Tertiary Institutions in Anambra State, South-East Nigeria. Data for the study were collected using a structured questionnaire distributed to staff of the physical planning units of the two institutions, construction industry professionals in the Faculty of Environment Sciences both at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and Federal Polytechnic, Oko all in Anambra State as well as Quantity Surveyors in the state. In all, a total of one hundred and twenty-eight (128) structured research questionnaires were distributed; data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Based on the outcome of the research, appropriate recommendations were made including a call for regular training and retraining of procurement officers to keep them abreast with global trends as well as provisions of the Nigerian procurement Act.