Fashola In N2.4bn Contract Mess

                             

MINISTER of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, is in the eye of the storm, with the Senate mandating its Committee on Public Procurement to investigate alleged contract racketeering and inflation of N2.4billion above approved contract sums in the Works Ministry.

The committee has one week to conclude the job and report back to the Senate.

This was sequel to a motion by Senator Dino Melaye over alleged irregularities in the award of contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of road and bridge projects forwarded to it by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing vide letters dated November 7 and 15, 2016 as contained in the 2016 budget implementation.

Melaye, in the motion, titled: “Irregularities in the awards of contracts by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP)”, alleged that the bureau went beyond its mandate to approve contract awards by the ministry by not only inflating some of the sums, but also re-awarded them to different companies.

According to him, BPP, in contravention of the Public Procurement Act, awarded contracts albeit illegally to companies not recommended by the procuring entity.

He said: “For instance, the procuring entity recommended Deux Project Ltd for the rehabilitation of Numan-Jalingo Road for N11.7billion; the BPP awarded the contract to Rock Bridge Construction Ltd at N12.8 billion which is N1.1billion in excess.

“While the Ministry of Works recommended the rehabilitation of Nenwe-Nomhe-Nburubu Nara road project to Don Machris Global Resources Ltd at N5.1billion, the BPP awarded it to Arab Contractors Nigeria Ltd at N6.4billion in excess of N1.3billion,” MElaye claimed.

He noted that the recommended contract sums by the ministry which was high already, ought to have been reduced, noting that the BPP by its action, raised the sum and awarded them to companies not recommended by the procuring entity in flagrant violation of Section 19 of the Public Procurement Act.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who seconded Melaye’s motion, said any committee assigned to look into the allegation should find out details of infractions between the ministry and the BPP.

He said the procurement process must be sensitive to the weather.

“Our procurement process needs to be sensitive to our seasons. Presently, we are in dry season, so, if contracts were awarded for road construction, I believe that whatever investigation we are doing should not prejudice the continued performance of that contract because if we do it means that by the time we enter the rainy season, the people will not be able to work again.

“In the past, some of our investigation stalled the work of government because if you recall the issue of the second runway was stalled because of the investigation we had here. The same thing happened to power sector reform. We were rolled back a couple of years because of the investigation in the House of Representatives on the power sector,” he said.

Senator Barnabas Gemade also cautioned, saying that the matter was very technical and must be handled by the committee thoroughly and technically.

He said: “The first three companies appeared to have a history of road building. The two that were initially recommended don’t seem to have obvious records, but this is a matter which the committee on procurement should look into very carefully. I cautioned that technical issues should be considered very, very critically in looking at this matter.”

Senate President Bukola Saraki, in his remarks, stressed that the committee must meet the deadline and be meticulous.

Reacting to Melaye’s claims, the Special Adviser, Communications, to the minister, Mr. Hakeem Bello, said his boss is not a member of the Evaluation Committee and therefore, , could not have been involved.

In a statement, Bello said, “to start with, there was an Evaluation Committee made up of a chairman and members, who are ranking professionals in their own right. The report that went to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) was the work of the Evaluation Committee which does not have the minister as member.

“It is pertinent to inform Nigerians that as at this moment, no new contracts have been awarded to date based on the 2016 Appropriation and as such, no single kobo has been paid.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the statutory role of the Bureau of Public Procurement is to vet contracts to be awarded depending on the threshold. At the end of its work, it either issues a Due Process Certificate of ‘No Objection’ or withholds it. Indeed, even if it issues a Certificate of No Objection, the last approving authority for the threshold of job is the Federal Executive Council and not the minister or the permanent secretary of the awarding ministry. It should be noted that the BPP has the final decision on contract prices and in previous memos from the ministry, the bureau had reviewed the cost of contracts,” Bello said.

-Sunnewsonline