In October 2005, following Nigeria’s exit from London and Paris Club of creditors through a debt relief that was granted to Nigeria, after the payment of $18 billion (negotiated) exiting threshold. There was an agreement that Nigeria, must, channel benefits of the debt relief to pro-poor expenditure lines funding. A monitoring and evaluation mechanism was developed for the Paris Club DRGs, which brought together, government, private sector, and civil society into a (joint) monitoring and evaluation structure for evaluation and tracking of impacts of the DRGs to Nigeria. NDEBUMOG was among CSOs selected through competitive bids for the monitoring and evaluation exercise that lasted from 2006 to 2013. During this assignment, NDEBUMOG contributed to several reports and populated the National (Monitoring) Portal through a national reporting structure. These were tailored to measure Nigeria’s national progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. The monitoring structure was managed by Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs (OSSAP-MDGs), which also handled coordination of releases of field reports. Presently, OSSAP-MDGs (in Nigeria) is referred to as OSSAP-SDGs. The United Nations equally engaged NDEBUMOG in the Post 2015 Consultative processes that birthed the SDGs. The Federal Government through the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) also engaged NDEBUMOG as sector-expert in the Medium-Term Sector Strategies from 2008 to 2011.  NDEBUMOG was assigned to Federal Ministry of Defence in 2008, Federal Ministry of Niger Delta in 2009, 2010 and 2011. NDEBUMOG still engages with the government on MTSS/MTEF, though processes and methods keep changing, depending on the government in power.

Before the formulation of Bayelsa State Public Procurement Bill to the State House of Assembly, the (then) government of Bayelsa State, under the leadership of Governor Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (who later became Nigeria’s President), conducted a pilot training on “Procurement Due Process” for senior civil servants in Bayelsa State. The event took place in February 2006 at the Sport Complex in Yenagoa. It was a collaboration between Bayelsa State Government and Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU), State House, Abuja. NDEBUMOG was the only civil society organization that was invited (among technical facilitators) to deliver a paper on “Domestication of Due Process Mechanism in Bayelsa State”. Part of NDEBUMOG’s recommendations (on end users’ inclusion) was captured in S.28 of the Bayelsa Public Procurement Law. This Act was signed into Law by the (then) Governor Timipre Sylva on the 17^th of June 2009.

Around 2006, NDEBUMOG consolidated (collaborative) partnerships with fiscal entities, including, the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), State House.  BPP was (then) known as Budget Monitoring & Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU). Collaborating with other civil society groups, NDEBUMOG played a critical role through advocacies and (legislative) lobbying for final passage of Nigeria’s Public Procurement Act in 2007. Following NDEBUMOG’s strategic relationship with the BPP, NDEBUMOG was appointed facilitator of five (5) BPP’s zonal sensitization programmes to enlightened Nigerians about the Public Procurement Act in Nigeria’s south-south geopolitical zone. These events took place in Calabar (2008), Port Harcourt (2009), Asaba (2011) and Benin City (2012). There was also BPP’s Federal Government Contractors Forum in Asaba in 2010.  NDEBUMOG was the lead technical facilitator at the Forum.

In November 2006, NDEBUMOG conducted a capacity enhancement training on “Procurement Due Process” for Local Government officers across 18 Local Government Areas in Cross River State. This was in line with NDEBUMOG’s commitment for responsive fiscal governance. The event was organized in collaboration with the (then) Budget Monitoring & Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU), now refers to as Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP)-State House, Abuja, Cross River State Planning Commission, together with the Local Government Service Commission. Support for this training was provided by United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID)-REFORMS Program. It was the first of its kind in Cross River State by a civil society organization as of 2006. In addition, through partnership with Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs (OSSAP-MDGs), NDEBUMOG collaborated with the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) to conduct a training on “Budgeting for MDGs in the Niger Delta” for MDAs across the region. This was with support from National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) at Calabar in 2007. MDGs Line Ministries across the six south-south states participated. This workshop resulted in another collaboration between Bayelsa and Cross River state government for capacity sharing on Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).

In 2011, the Federal Government appointed NDEBUMOG into a team of experts that was mandated to carry out a five-day Procurement Audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). This assignment was conveyed through a letter with ref no: BPP/S.11/CCMD/VOL.VII/433 dated 5^th July 2011 Ironically, there was a bottleneck! The assignment was frustrated, which led to immediate constitution of the Oronsaye’s Committee by the Federal Government to probe the agency. The Committee’s report, among others, recommended immediate dissolution of the (then) NDDC’s Board. The Oronsaye’s Committee recommendations was enforced by the Federal Government on the 13th of September 2011. NDEBUMOG’s expertise on procurement audit was further reechoed by the Federal Government through a letter dated 27^th July 2015 with ref: BPP/S.I/VOL.XLX/511 for another assignment. NDEBUMOG has been invited by agencies of the Federal Government to observe bidding processes for capital procurement(s) and related fiscal matters, among others.

Remarkably, NDEBUMOG led a team of experts that drafted (civil society’s version of) Edo State Public Procurement Bill. Afterwards, Edo State legislature harmonized and adopted vital provisions from the version into the central Bill, which was deliberated and passed by Edo State House of Assembly. It was signed into law by (then) Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in 2012.  This assignment was conducted through collaboration with Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Benin City, with support from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). Edo State Public Procurement Act was passed with responsive clauses. The law is communally friendly! Some of the responsive clauses included: quarterly state of public procurement report to citizens; needs assessment and analysis; civil society monitoring and observation of bidding processes; community inclusion; membership of civil society in the Board, among others.

Budget circles and procurements shall live with existence of humanity. It shall continue to remain relevant for fiscal governance organizations, such as, the Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group. Procurement’s maneuvering evolves corruption that budget paddings are harvested. Illicit financial flows and abuse of state administrative resources in campaign financing vis a vis state capture are all ingredients of public procurements corruption. It means, for any society, family, or community to get it right developmentally, there must be procurement monitoring. That is part of what NDEBUMOG does!