FG awards N967bn, $84.8m contracts in three months –Investigation

The Federal Government approved contracts totalling N967bn in local currency and $84.8m in foreign currency during the last three months of 2014, The PUNCH has learnt.

Investigation by our correspondent showed that the contracts cutting across 10 federal ministries were approved between October 8 and December 17, 2014, by the nation’s highest decision making body, the Federal Executive Council.

President Goodluck Jonathan presides over the council’s meetings which hold every Wednesday while Vice President Namadi Sambo stands in for him whenever he is unavoidably absent.

According to investigation, the ministries that benefitted from these contracts included those of Transport; Works; Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs; Niger Delta Affairs; Federal Capital Territory; Aviation; Industry, Trade and Investment, Power; Water Resources as well as Environment.

A breakdown of the sum showed that the Ministry of Niger Delta had the lion’s share of the contracts with N509.2bn.

The ministry was closely followed by the Ministry of Works which benefited to the tune of N260.9bn.

The FCT Ministry got N157bn; Ministry of Transport -N27.7bn; Ministry of Environment -N9.4bn; Ministry of Power -N1.13bn; Ministry of Water Resources -N1bn; Ministry of Aviation -N550.8m and $21.4m; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment – N150.4m; and Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs- $3.7m.

A chunk of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs’ contracts sum went into the variation of engineering construction contract for the dualisation of the East-West Road Project Section I (Warri-Kaiama I in Delta State) and Section II: Subsection II-I (Port-Harcourt-Ahoada) in Rivers State and Subsection II-II (Ahoada-Kaiama) in Rivers/Bayelsa states that was awarded in the sum of N269.4bn.

The contract which was awarded to Setraco Nigeria Limited on October 22, 2014 had a duration period of seven months.

The fund is meant to be drawn from the ministry’s 2014 Appropriation; SURE-P and the African Development Bank loan.

The second biggest contract for the ministry during the period is the contract for the construction of Phase I, Section V of the East-West Road, beginning from Uyo/Oron Roundabout in Akwa Ibom State to Calabar-Odukpani Road in Calabar, Cross River State which was awarded in the sum of N165.2bn.

The contract, which has five years completion period, was awarded to China Civil Engineering and Construction Company on October 22, 2014.

The fund is meant to be drawn from the 2014 Appropriation and the China Exim Bank loan.

For the Ministry of Works, a chunk of the contracts was awarded on December 12, 2014, when the council approved contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of 17 roads and bridges across the country (Categories A and B).

The 17 contracts ranged from N1bn to N120bn.

The foreign currency content of the contracts included the Ministry of Transport’s construction of Berth 21 at Terminal ‘E’, Lagos Port Complex, Apapa, in the sum of $59.7m awarded on December 17 to Greenview Development Nigeria Limited.

The contract is to be pre-funded by the concessionaire.

Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Government Affairs also has a foreign component in the contracts for the manufacturing and supply of branded sporting equipment for the implementation of the National Lottery Trust Fund 2014 Good Cause Intervention Programme in Sports to the tune of $2.8m.

The contract was awarded to China Sports International Company Limited on October 15, 2014.

Another contract was awarded for the same purpose on the same day to the tune of $914,967 to CAAN Sports Organisations Limited.

The two contracts have three and two months delivery periods respectively.