NDEBUMOG is the South-South Contact Civil Society Organization of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), a position we have held since our inception in the era, when BPP was the Budget Monitoring & Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU), before the passage of the Public Procurement Act by the National Assembly, in which NDEBUMOG also played a critical role through advocacy and legislative lobbying. We have facilitated five regional events on behalf of the BPP in the South-South Zone, at Calabar (2008), Port Harcourt (2009), Asaba (2011) and Benin City (2012). There was also Contractors’ Forum of the BPP in 2010 at Asaba, which the expert presentation was led by NDEBUMOG Leadership. We also have attended numerous events of the BPP at the national level and have at our Regional Budget Library, copies of Federal MDAs Procurement Plans and Records, supplied to us by the BPP in large quantities.

Under our partnership with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs (OSSAP-MDGs), we collaborated with OSSAP-MDGs, together with the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) to conduct a workshop on Budgeting for MDGs in the Niger Delta, in partnership with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). The event took place at Calabar, Cross River State. All MDGs Line Ministries across the six South-South States in the Niger Delta were invited and they participated. This (MDGs line pro-poor) workshop ventilated a latter collaboration between Bayelsa and Cross River State government, leading to capacity sharing between the two states for the implementation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in Bayelsa State.

Further to our commitment to influence pro-poor governance in Cross River, we also undertook a Capacity Enhancement Training for Key Officers (3 each from an LGA) across the 18 LGAs of the State on Procurement Due Process. This was in November, 2006, in collaboration with the Budget Monitoring & Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) now the BPP, Cross River State Planning Commission and the Local Government Service Commission in Cross River State, with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID-REFORMS) Project. It was the first of its kind in Cross River State from any Civil Society Organization in the Niger Delta. From the period enumerated above till now, we have deepened our partnership on fiscal issues with the Cross River State Government. Up till 2014, the Office of the Special Assistant to the Governor of Cross River State on Budget Monitoring confer with NDEBUMOG regularly on some fiscal issues affecting Cross River State within the equilibrium of the National Budget, including invitation(s) to Budget Consultative Processes in Cross River State, amongst others.

Further, year-in-year out, NDEBUMOG Regional Accountability usually sampled some capital projects of the Federal, State and Local Governments’ to measure performance around such projects in the State. Some of the capital projects, we have randomly checked in the state are:

Construction and Provision of Borehole/Solar System at Primary Health Centre, Ward 5, Diamond, Calabar Municipal, Construction and Provision of Borehole/Solar System at Primary Health Care Centre, Ikom. Provision of Solar System at Health Centre, Maternity Junction, Akpabuyo, Construction and Provision of Borehole/Solar System at Bakassi Ward 4 & Ward 5 and Construction of 3 Classroom Block at Ikom Urban, Ward 3, among other projects within Ikom axis. Importantly, there are several projects in the state, which we have drawn attention of stakeholders and that of the state government to. Some of such, particularly, Federal projects are:

• Calabar-Ikom-Ogoja-Katsina Ala Road (FMW) N5 billion (2014)
• What about award of contract for “Augmentation of Contract No. 5991 for rehabilitation of 23km Alesi to Iyamoyong in Obubra Local Government Area as an Addendum to the Rehabilitation of Calabar-Ugep-Ogoja-Katsina Ala Road Section II: Ugep-Ikom-Ogoja-Katsina Ala in Cross River and Benue States” awarded to Mssrs China Civil Engineering Company (CCECC) Nigeria Limited by same FMWs on the 21^st of Nov, 2012 with 11 months completion at the cost of N9.1 billion?
• Others, like billions budgeted for the rehabilitation of Calabar-Itu-Odukpani Highway at a time the road was almost impassable attracted physical inspection of the road by NDEBUMOG team from Port Harcourt at our own cost and sacrifice between 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Between 2008 till date, majority of our regional events, have always taken place in Cross River State, particularly Calabar, of which almost 20 of our regional events has taken place in this city from 2008 till date.