The World Bank has approved the sum of $5.6m for the Home Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to procure 21 items, which included office stationeries, furniture, solar inverter, office equipment, and vehicles.
The approvals were made under the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) project, which was initiated in 2018.
The SFTAS project was designed to strengthen transparency and accountability at the sub-national level and ended in 2022.
However, the implementation of the projects is still ongoing according to a document obtained from the bank.
According to this report, a total of $1.5bn was committed to the project in two batches of $750m (December 2018 and December 2020) by the World Bank.
Although the money is a grant to state governments, it is a loan to the Federal Government. A copy of the procurement plan for the project covering a period from February 2019 to August 2020.
The procurement plan is in line with the World Bank’s Procurement Guidelines which establish the arrangements to be made for procuring the goods and works (including related services) required for a project.
According to the procurement plan for the SFTAS project for the period disclosed by the World Bank, the Home Finance Department received $25,713 to acquire office stationery and supplies.
It also got another $39,357, up from the N33,000 initially requested for additional office equipment and supplies for the SFTAS Programme Coordinating Unit.
For the furniture items, the department got $64,190 for furnishing and equipping SFTAS Public Service Institute space; $14,842 for additional office furniture and partitioning of the STFAS office, as well as $19,368 up from $17,250 for additional office equipment and furniture for the Debt Management Office.
The department also received $24,038 for the procurement of video conferencing equipment for the SFTAS PCU and MiFi modems for the DMO.
