House Panel to Investigate the Shady Award of N3.3 billion Contracts

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has called on the attention of the Ministry of Works over suspected shady deals in the award of two road contracts valued at over N3.3bn.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Solomon Adeola said over the weekend that one of the contracts in question was the N1.045bn Nsukka-Adani Road in Enugu State.

He revealed that another was a contract N2.3bn worth contract sited in Nasarawa state.

According to Adeola, earlier the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation raised its objections over the contract and forwarded its report to the PAC.

He noted that two years after the project was abandoned in 2004, the committee observed a curious “overpayment” of N22m to contractors for the Nsukka-Adani Road in 2006.

“How come the Federal Ministry of Works issued certificates for further payments to the contractors in 2005 and 2006 even though the contract was terminated in 2004?

“There has to be explanations for this overpayment; it is curious,” he said.

Regarding the one for Nasarawa State, he said the state government originally awarded it for N77m, however Federal Government  later took over the contract and re-awarded it for N2.3bn.

The committee stated that a former member of the House and Federal Government contractor, Mr. Nicholas Ukachukwu, reportedly played an intermediary’s role in the award of the contracts by the Ministry of Works.

In the light of the development, Ukachukwu was summoned by the committee to appear before it and explain how the contracts were awarded and his role in facilitating the payments.

.Conversely, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr. Abubakar Mohammed, claimed that the contractor who took charge the Nasarawa road had sued the Federal Government and won.

The panel was not satisfied with his response as he also said, a court awarded N1.3bn to the contractor.

A member of the committee, Mr. Pally Iriase raised his reservations on Mohammed’s response and said he could not comprehend how a contractor would dump a project and still sue the government.

Investigations into the contracts are scheduled to continue this week.