ATBU Graduates 1,500 Students on Procurement, Social Standards in Bauchi

 

 

By Idris Ayinde

The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi state has graduated 1,500 students from the World Bank Project on Sustainable Procurement, Social and Environmental Standards Enhancement.

 

Speaking during the graduation ceremony in Bauchi on Monday, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, ATBU, Prof. Ibrahim Garba, said that the programmes were introduced by the World Bank to reduce rising corruption from procurement and train environmental experts and social standards specialists.

He explained that the programme was designed for students to attend classes virtually and receive their certificate physically at the university campus.

Garba, who is also the Coordinator, of the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Center of Excellence (SPESSCE) of the university, added that the training was a capacity-building programme.

According to him, the programme was to address skill gaps in the procurement standards, the practice of environmental standards and the application of social standards.

 

“The training spans five tracks. Track A is run for five days where participants get their certificates, and track B is where participants learn within three to four weeks.

 

“We have track D post-graduate diploma, track E is professional and academic masters.

“The programme is designed to help the people in the procurement process to be more conversant with the existing law.

 

“The procurement law holds the chief executive officers accountable but most of the time it is the procurement officers that are conversant with the law and not the chief executives.

 

“However, with this programme, we train procurement officers while we also organise a master class for chief executive officers and we believe this will help to address any inconsistencies in the procurement process,” he said.

Also, speaking on behalf of others, one of the graduates, Aisha Ibrahim, who lauded the university for keying into the programme, said they had learned a lot about procurement processes and law.

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