A non-governmental organisation, the Transparency and Accountability Advancement Group, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sanction the Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over Federal Executive Council’s breach of the Procurement Act of 2007 in relation to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) expenditures.
According to the group, Akpabio should be blamed for FEC approval of NDDC memos and expenditures for item which have no budgetary provisions.
The group said going by revelations from the ongoing National Assembly investigations into expenditures by the NDDC, which is supervised by Akpabio, and the Interim Management Committee of the commission, the minister is to be blamed for this disregard to law.
In a statement by Ebi Arogbofa, Director of Strategy and Information, the group made reference to the testimony of immediate past Acting Managing Director of NDDC, Ms Joy Nunieh, who told the Senate Adhoc Committee investigating the IMC that Senator Akpabio took a memo to the Federal Executive Council without following the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.
It quoted Nunieh as saying she refused to go along with Akpabio when he took a memo to the FEC meeting seeking approval of the sum of N318 million for a lead consultant since such expenditure was related to the NDDC budget, which had not been passed into law at that time.
The group said Nunieh reasoned that presenting the memo for approval was an offence which carries a five years imprisonment without an option of fine.
It said Nunieh revealed that Akpabio went ahead to get the FEC approval, contrary to provisions of the Procurement Act, which stipulates that all contract approvals must be predicated on prior approved budgets.
The Transparency and Accountability Advancement Group also alleged that Akpabio breached the Procurement Act by getting FEC approval of a “memo in the sum of N1.599 billion for the purchase of vehicles for the NDDC.”
The group said this showed that “at the time the memo was presented by Akpabio in June, the NDDC had no approved budget in force because the 2019 budget expired on May 31st and the 2020 budget for NDDC had not been passed by the National Assembly because of the failure of the IMC to furnish the National Assembly with details of its 2019 budget performance which is required for review before the consideration and passage of its 2020 budget.”
It said by getting the expenditures approved, Akpabio made the FEC to “commit an illegality, in contravention of the country’s Procurement laws.”
The group said Akpabio has no place in an “administration that lays claim to law, due process and progressive policies.”