The House of Representatives, Federal Republic of Nigeria has, in its plenary, made known its intention to investigate the procurement process of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.
This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national Importance moved by Austine Achado (APC, Benue) during plenary on Thursday.
Achado, who moved the motion, insisted that the National Assembly was not consulted and that the contract award was made without following the proper procedures.
He expressed worries that the project’s procurement strategy might have broken Section 40(2) of the Public Procurement Act of 2007, which states that “if a procuring authority chooses to use a restrictive tendering approach, it should be on the basis that the said goods and services are available from a limited number of suppliers and contractors and as such, tenders shall be invited from all such contractors who can provide such goods and services.”
Section 4 of the Act stipulated that all approved infrastructure projects and contracts for financing, construction, and maintenance must be advertised for open competitive public bid in at least three national dailies. He said that the House was aware that the Federal Ministry of Works’ procurement strategy for the contract award violated this provision.
Achema stated that Section 5 of the Act made it even clearer that direct talks with a single contractor could only begin if Section 4’s requirements had been met.
“This is likely to create contingent liabilities to the Nigerian Government,” he said, expressing concerns about the Federal Ministry of Works’ promotion of the project, which only provided a rate per kilometer for the planned works and omitted information about the private partner’s financing sources, structure, and competitiveness.
According to him, Section 22(3) of the Debt Management Office (Establishment) Act of 2023 is violated by the contingent liabilities accruing to the Federal Government of Nigeria on the coastal project. This is because the Minister is not allowed to guarantee an external loan unless its terms and conditions have been presented to and approved by the National Assembly.
He claimed that the National Assembly had not approved the assurances given to pay for the debt financing portion of the coastline project.
The House also directed Minister of Works, Dave Umahi; the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi to ensure that all guarantees and credit enhancement instruments for the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road Project are sent to the National Assembly for approval.
Meanwhile, the House forwarded the matter to its Works and Procurement committees.
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