Contract Uploads on Osun Website: Setting the Records Straight

PRESS STATEMENT

OSOGBO – JULY 18th, 2024 – Osunstate.gov.ng

Our attention has been drawn to a news reports and counter -reports on a Sahara Reporters’ story on a previous contract awards and uploads on Osun state websites under under former Governor Gboyega Oyetola

We seek to correct certain misconceptions we noticed in the counter-reactions to the Sahara Reporters story. Our goal is to set the records straight

The old Osun state OCDS Portal is www.ocdsosun.org.ng. The new Osun state e-Procurement System is egp.osunstate.gov.ng. It was launched in December 2021 under the government of former Governor Oyetola.

So we must first take note that the migration of the data from the old to the new website was done under the administration of Governor Oyetola.
The then Commissioner of Finance Mr Bola Oyebamiji and the Former General Manager of the Agency, Mr Adegboyega Basheer Bello supervised the entire e-procurement process.

So it was not true that it was the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke which created the new website and incorrectly exported existing data on the old website.

Having clarified that, we want to add further that the e-Procurement System has OCDS records of manual awards (i.e; awards before the use of e-Procurement) and electronic awards conducted through the e-Procurement system (after 2021).

The two portals were created during the administration of former Governor Oyetola. Bon Maximus company was engaged as consultant to manage the new e.procurement system (egp.osunstate.gov.ng) by the same Oyetola administration.

The error identified was a data entry error that occurred three (3) times during migration of manual awards to the e-Procurement system.This was as earlier noted done under the previous administration.

This can be authenticated further as the “Release Date” which means “Upload Date” of the affected project is 2021-06-01. The award is for a single project, award amount is N233,456,205 and it is a Direct Labour project executed by the Ministry of Works.

However, the error was corrected by the consultant when he saw Sahara’s report as such error can only occur on a project that was awarded manually. You can not have errors in electronic awards; i.e; contracts conducted through the e-Procurement system.

This is one of the reasons why the current Osun State government retained the inherited e-Procurement system for better transparency and efficiency in procurement processes.

We therefore want to note that the original Sahara Reporters’ story indeed picked the data from the official website which indeed contained the error.

As we have affirmed, it was however an error, a migration of data error from the old to the new website.

The fact as stated above is that it was one project that was uploaded three times which gave the impression of wrongdoing.

This multiple posting of contracts in error while moving data from old to the new site, all occurred under the administration of former Governor Oyetola.

The consultant managing the site did the needful by correcting the anomaly.

We thank the Sahara Reporters for spotting the error even as we assure that under the current procurement system, no error of such can re-occur.

Signed:
Engr. Babatunde Adesina Oyetola,
General Manager,
Public Procurement Agency