From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, gave its nod for the N388 billion Niger Delta Ministry contract scam.
The Ministry had submitted the report on the probe it carried out from its inception in 2009 to 2015, showing massive contract scams from the N700 billion released to it within the period.
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Usani, while briefing State House correspondents at the post-FEC meeting, said a dismal 12 per cent (about N388 billion) of contract performance was recorded out of the N423 billion expended on the region by the Ministry alone, aside other intervening agencies.
According to him, council consequently approved that the Ministry should proceed with the recommendations, which include to recover the outstanding balance from the contractors or have them prosecuted.
Usani said, “the revealing content of the report shows that over N423 billion has been expended in the region by the Ministry alone, not including other intervening agencies.
“From this amount, project execution rate has been at 12 per cent, with an average completion rate of a project standing at five years and the impact rate is eight per cent.
“So, today we have sought approval from council to have the recommendations of this report conveyed to the legitimate agencies charged with the statutory responsibilities of recovering government assets that are either misappropriated, misused or found to be idling in some quarters.
“With this, it means all those who have accessed government resources for one purpose or another must be compelled to make adequate use of same, otherwise face the recommendations that go with such violations, and that is our position concerning that report. And we have got council approval for that.”
The Minister explained that the figures mean that 60 per cent of the funds appropriated for 427 contracts were paid out to contractors who only managed a 12 per cent completion rate.
“When we say 60 per cent, it is 60 per cent of the amount of money that was actually appropriated, being N700 billion. And so, 60 per cent of that constitutes N423 billion.
“So, to find that N423 billion has been expended in the region with the type of result we see obviously shows that there is something tangibly and obviously wrong with how procurement had been carried out in the Ministry,” he stated.
On the punishment to be meted to defaulting contractors, Usani clarified that “the measure of action to be taken to address the shortfall of our expectations of commitment to contractual commitments will be the determinant of what will be done.
“So, those that require sanctions will be sanctioned and the sanctions may not be uniform; it will also be according to the measure of liabilities owed by each of those contractors.
“Some should be compelled to return to site. Some, of course, should be made to refund money – those who we have seen by action displaying criminal intent by collecting money and not appearing at site at all.