The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has set in motion a proposal to consider an increase in budget and procurement thresholds for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The move, the federal government said, is aimed at reducing the time spent on procurement-related discussions at FEC meetings and allow for greater focus on policy deliberations.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this after the FEC meeting, presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.

The minister said a significant portion of memos brought before the council was about contract approvals, adding that efforts are ongoing to see how some of those discussions could be handled at the MDAs.

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He said, “You will notice that so many of these memos coming to the council are related to procurement contracts at the FEC level. So FEC thought that it is good to review that so that more time will be given to policy discussions at different Executive Council meetings.”

The proposal, still under deliberation, seeks to empower ministers and heads of MDAs with higher approval limits, reducing the frequency of procurement-related memos coming to the FEC.

This move, according to the minister, is a key point of discussion during the meeting, with President Bola Tinubu leading the debate.

“The idea is that it’s not yet conclusive what the final decisions are, but there is a very fruitful debate led by the chairman of the council, Mr President himself, to review that, so that we can have more time for policy discussions at the Federal Executive Council meetings,” he explained.

To refine the proposal, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and relevant ministers have been tasked with working out the details of the proposals.

Their recommendations would be presented to the FEC for final approval by the president.

“If you observe, all the memos presented here are largely related to procurements, and so we want that to be decongested at the Federal Executive Council level.

“This will give room for more detailed discussions on policy issues and reduce some of these memos coming by increasing the threshold of those procurement processes to be executed at the ministerial level,” Idris added.