Assessing the Effectiveness of the Public Procurement Act 2007 in Curbing Material Cost Inflation and Project Abandonment in Anambra State

Abstract

Public infrastructure delivery in Nigeria continues to be undermined by two closely related problems: the persistent inflation of construction material prices and the abandonment of publicly funded projects. The Public Procurement Act 2007 (PPA) was enacted to entrench transparency, competition and value for money in public spending, and its principles have since been domesticated by most states, including Anambra, through the Anambra State Public Procurement Law 2011 (as amended in 2020). This paper critically assesses the extent to which this procurement law regime has succeeded in curbing material cost inflation and project abandonment in Anambra State. Adopting a mixed-methods design combining doctrinal and documentary analysis with a descriptive survey of construction sector stakeholders, the paper examines statutory provisions, regulatory reports, survey responses from contractors, quantity surveying consultants, procurement officers and ministry engineers, and secondary evidence on abandoned projects and construction material prices. The paper finds that while the procurement law provides mechanisms capable of moderating cost escalation and abandonment in principle, notably procurement planning, budgetary certainty, price variation clauses, monitoring and debarment, its practical effectiveness is constrained by weak enforcement, discretionary disclosure practices, political discontinuity and its structural inability to address macroeconomic drivers of inflation such as exchange rate volatility and fuel costs. Survey evidence confirms that stakeholders perceive the regime as only moderately effective, with material cost inflation and project abandonment persisting at significant levels. The paper concludes that the procurement law is a necessary but insufficient instrument, and recommends complementary fiscal, contractual and institutional reforms to strengthen its effectiveness.