The Lagos State Public Procurement Agency has organised a training programme on Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) to boost the capacity of Procurement Officers of the 107 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the State Government that have been integrated on the e-procurement platform of the State.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the training programme, the Director-General of the Agency, Mr. Fatai Idowu Onafowote, stated that the programme was organised for Procurement Officers to enhance data collation, analysis and publishing, adding that the OCDS was created to support organisations to increase transparency and encourage data analysis by a wide range of users all over the world, using a common data model or format.
The Director- General also spoke about the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme which he said is a product of a mutual agreement between the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the World Bank, designed to improve revenue, strengthen, increase fiscal efficiency in public expenditure and reducing debt overhang in Nigerian States.
Mr. Onafowote also explained that in compliance with the SFTAS programme, the Agency had since commenced the publication of contract awards above specific thresholds on its website in the OCDS format which he said is accessible and open to the general public via the Agency’s website: www.lagosppa.gov.ng.
He further pointed out that Procurement Officers of Procuring Entities of the State that were yet to be onboarded on the e-procurement platform would also be trained on the OCDS format and the e-procurement system as soon as their MDAs are onboarded later in the year.
The participants were also trained on the usage of Google Sheets which would enable them to work in real time and submit their project data directly online from anywhere they are, using the Google Drive account.
