Military preaches probity in equipment procurement

Duffed with the scandal that characterised recent military procurement of hardwares, the Armed Forces is set to improve the military equipment procurement procedures.

According the Director, Defence Information, Brig Gen Rabe Abubakar said in Abuja that the force was ready to correct every irregularity that  had hitherto caused failures and poor accountability in the acquisition of heavy military weapons and platforms.

In a seminar organized by the Defence Headquarters in Abuja, the military authorities’ plan is to totally overhaul and realign their hardware acquisition processes and make it completely transparent in accordance with the present administration’s policy thrust.

The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Gabriel Abayomi Olonisakin, who declared the seminar opened said that the AFN would always remain a shining example of moral correctness in the management of public funds.

ALSO SEE: Military vows not to negotiate with Niger Delta Avengers

He said that the outcome of the seminar would go a long way to serve as a veritable tool for assessing the hardware needs of the military and their procurement capacities while harmonizing them with the earlier proposed guidelines of the ministry of defence which is the supervising ministry of the armed forces.

The theme, of the seminar, ‘Capability Management of the Armed Forces of Nigeria through an Integrated Procurement System’, the CDS said the seminar would ensure that the operational requirements of the military would always be assessed with what the end users need.

“The theme derives its focus from global best practices where urgent operational requirements are matched with needs assessed from end users”, he said.

In some of the papers presented, it was affirmed that if an organization adopts wrong procurement methods needs assessment would be low, the capacity of the armed forces would reduce, and an outright failure would follow sooth.