CHALLENGES FACING LAGOS STATE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AGENCY IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT LAW

the paper analyzed the challenges facing Lagos State Public Procurement Agency in the implementation of procurement law. The paper adopted both the primary and secondary sources of data; data were collected through administration of questionnaires on the identified respondents. The study population of workers in the selected ministries, agency, contractors, and civil society organization consisted of 1398. A proportionate random sampling technique was used in selecting a sample size of 210 respondents representing 15% of the study population. Secondary data were obtained from books, academic journal official documents of LSPPA, and internet. Data collected were analyzed with the use of percentage, frequency, and mean. The result of the study revealed that the challenges facing Lagos State Public Procurement Agency; namely: poor ethical standard (58.9%, x̅ =2.5), shortage of manpower (72.2%, x̅ =2.1), and delay in the adjudication of contract malpractices (65.8%, x̅=2.1) were largely insubstantial challenges facing LSPPA in the implementation of public procurement law of the state amongst the ten acknowledged challenges. On the other hand, the paper further shown the challenges that were largely substantial for the LSPPA in the implementation of public procurement law in the state; such as: interference from political office holders (67.4, x̅=2.9), poor ethical standard (63.9%, x̅=2.6), delay in the release of appropriated budget (57.4%, x̅=2.7), political will and commitment to prosecute offenders (54.5, x̅=2.7), sharp practices in the award of contract (65.8%, x̅=2.8), politicized civil society organization (78.2%, x̅ =3.0), and submission of procurement plan (60.9%, x̅=2.8) substantially hampers LSPPA in the quest to achieve efficiency, probity, openness, value for money, accountability, and fair pricing amongst others. The study therefore, concludes that the challenges facing LSPPA, Lagos State Public Procurement Agency in the implementation of public procurement law in the state is largely substantial, and decelerates the policy objective targets of procurement law of the State. It was further evident from seven claims confirmation as against three claims that negated it respectively.