Managing Director of Calabar Channel Management (CCM) Company Limited, Mr. Bart Van Eenoo, has said that neither his company nor its management is aware of the purported termination of its Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) over the dredging of the Calabar Channel.
Reacting to reports credited to the Managing Director of NPA, Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman, to the effect that NPA has terminated the JVA with the Niger-Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NGETCL) for the dredging of the Calabar Channel over the violation of Procurement Act, Eenoo said though his company would not react to speculations as it has not received any such letter from NPA or any other person, it was trite to point out that the contract followed due process and never violated any Procurement Act.
He said the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) vide a letter referenced BPP/S.1/CID/14/VOL.1/088, dated August 15, 2014 and signed by the then Director General, Emeka Ezeh, approved the project.
Eenoo said the letter titled, RE: Contract for the Maintenance Dredging Between Niger-Global and Technical Company and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), reads: “This is to refer to the Federal Ministry of Transport letter Reference No.TPROC/NPA/P/67/2011/1/314 dated August 11, 2014. The Bureau has no objection to the implementation of the project as approved by Mr. President.”
According to the CCM boss, what the NPA chief executive is probably relying on was an earlier response by BPP to an initial petition by the former Board Chairman of NPA to the Presidency against the project, which the President then referred to the BPP. But after evaluating the matter, the BPP gave the “No Objection Certificate” and advised that the complaint by the former Board Chairman was merely a personal difference, which it said should not affect the integrity of the project. The former Chairman also wrote to withdraw the petition.
The CCM chief executive stated that the contract went through the necessary approvals and vetting by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice before it was finally sealed; and challenged the NPA MD to make public the purported letter from BPP advising against the contract.
