By Gabriel Okoro, Abuja
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Public Procurement and Power to jointly investigate the allegations of gross statutory breaches including violation of the public procurement Act 2007 by the management of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc.
The decision is sequel to a motion raised by Mr. Muhammed Soba(APC, Kaduna) during matter of urgent national importance at plenary on Tuesday.
Raising the motion, Mr. Soba notes that contrary to the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and extant Guidelines and Regulations from the Bureau of Public Procurement, the Managing Director and Management of NBET, executed Power Purchase Agreements and initiated the performance and implementation of its terms in total disregard for due process, which has resulted in losses to the Federal Government worth over N90 billion.
According to him, contrary to the provisions of the Act, NBET engages Consultants in breach of the Act and extant Guidelines, Rules, Circulars and other Subsidiary Legislation. One of many examples is the engagement of Messrs AELEX(Law Firm) and Azinge & Azinge(Law Firm) despite the fact that they lacked basic bidding documents, the least responsive bidder was not awarded the contract and the required authorization from the Attorney General of the Federation was not obtained prior to the engagement of these Law Firms.
“Most contractors and vendors engaged by NBET are not registered with the Bureau of Public Procurement, neither are they registered on the National Database of Federal Contractors, Consultants and Service Providers which is a gross violation of the provisions of the Acts”, he said.
He further observed that the Managing Director and Management of NBET have been accused of awarding contracts arbitrarily and not to be the lowest evaluated responsive bidder as required by Section 16(17) of the Public Procurement Act 2007 resulting in losses worth billions of Naira.
To this end, the lawmaker worried that if urgent steps are not taken to investigate these allegations and address any proven infractions, an institutional system of manipulation of the procurement process would have been created and an awkward situation would have been created which will lead to further financial losses to the Federal Government of Nigeria.