Procurement Governance: A Statutory Chain Analysis of Planning, Evaluation and Approval under the Nigerian Public Procurement Act

Description

ABSTRACT

Procurement Governance: A Statutory Chain Analysis of Planning, Evaluation and Approval under the Nigerian Public Procurement Act

Taiwo Adebola Ogunleye*

This article evaluates the statutory chain model of public procurement governance under the Public Procurement Act 2007, as amended by the Finance Act 2020. It contends that the legality of a procurement is not determined at a single decision point but emerges cumulatively through a structured sequence of legally mandated stages: planning, accountability, competition and evaluation, threshold allocation, and institutional approval. By analysing the interaction between sections 20, 21, 23-33, 17 and 22, of the Public Procurement Act, the article shows that each stage performs a distinct regulatory function and imposes legally binding constraints on subsequent decision-making. The article further situates this statutory architecture within broader administrative law and regulatory governance theory and argues that defects at any stage of the chain may invalidate procurement outcomes, regardless of formal compliance at the approval stage.

Keywords: Public procurement; governance; proceduralisation; administrative law; Nigeria; regulatory design; evaluation; institutional decision-making.

INTRODUCTION
Public procurement regulation is often misunderstood as a discrete decision-making exercise culminating in the award of a contract. That view obscures the deeper legal structure of procurement systems grounded in statute. Under the Public Procurement Act 2007 (PPA), as amended by the Finance Act 2020,₁ procurement is not a single decision but a legally structured process comprising multiple interdependent stages.₂ This article argues that procurement under the PPA is best understood as a statutory chain of legality, in which compliance is cumulative, and each stage imposes binding constraints on subsequent decision-making. The legal validity of procurement outcomes does not arise solely from institutional approval but from the integrity of the entire sequence of planning, evaluation and approval processes.₃

The Finance Act 2020 is particularly important in this regard. By amending sections 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 30, it broadened the institutional reach of the PPA, extended procurement discipline across the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government, and reconfigured the approval architecture through revised threshold and board arrangements.₄ Procurement governance under

* LL.B, Ph.D, B.L.

1. Notwithstanding its date of enactment, this Act is still subsisting and remains in full force and effect until lawfully repealed or amended.
2. Public Procurement Act 2007 (Nigeria) s 21; Finance Act 2020 (Nigeria) ss 63-70.
3. Public Procurement Act 2007 ss 17, 20-23, 33.65
4. Finance Act 2020 ss 63-70.

THE GRAVITAS REVIEW OF BUSINESS & PROPERTY LAW Vol.16 No.14