BY BEN AGANDE

ABUJA— The Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, has submitted a list of 50 companies to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for investigation and prosecution over falsification of informa-tion in a bid to get government contracts.

Similarly, BPP has also recommended four staff of some government agencies to EFCC for prosecution for trying to compromise the Public Procurement Procedure of the Federal Government.

The Director-General of the bureau, Dr. Emeka Ezeh, disclosed these to newsmen after signing a cooperation agreement between BPP and UN office on drugs and crime to strengthen the organisation in preemptive detection of corruption in govern-ment procurement process.

According to him, the companies that had provided false informa-tion in an attempt to get government procure-ment contracts included small local companies and multinational companies.

He decried duping government through dubious quotations, noting that through its diligent scrutiny of procurement processes of government agencies and departments, BPP had been able to save government more than N523 billion.

Speaking on the agreement signed yesterday, Dr. Ezeh said it was to enhance the capability of BPP in the areas of ICT, manpower capacity development, rules and procedures, that 34 million Euro grant was given to government agencies such as EFCC, ICPC and BPP.

“There is need to put in place procedures using technology and manpower. Nigeria is the first country where this system is to be deployed,” he said.