Federal Government yesterday suspended bids for Citizenship and Business (C&B) automation of the Expatriate Quota Department of the Ministry of Interior.

This is coming as 78 companies participated in the bidding exercise for the N385 million Nigerian Airforce Capital projects for 2010 at an open bidding conducted by Air Officer Logistics, Air Vice Marshal Sikiru Smith and Secretary to the Tenders Board, Group Captain Adewale Ogunmodede at the Nigerian Airforce Headquar-ters, Abuja.

A statement issued by the Ministry said the bid exercise “allegedly carried out by the Ministry of Interior was not in full compliance with the Public Procurement Act 2007”.

“The Minister of Interior was not notified of the exercise and so formal and proper communication channel was breached, just as the Legal Adviser of the Ministry was not involved in the process”, it said.

The statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media, Ben Iheanacho, said “the Minister of Interior had through a memo on 29/6/2010 earlier instructed the permanent secretary to stop further actions on the bid until instructed otherwise, citing paragraph one above”.

“Finally, several complaints received by the Minister regarding the exercise has made the suspension imperative and timely, in order to ensure transparency and avoid litigations”, he said.

Meanwhile, the open bidding for Nigerian Airforce Capital projects which took place in Abuja witnessed the participation of 78 companies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and the media.

The projects include development of the Nigerian Institute for Safety, Ipetu-Ijesha, Osun State; rehabilitation of Makurdi Airport runway.

The Safety Institute projects would entail the construction of roads, provision of water supply, electricity, construction of headquarters complex which comprises classrooms, a mini-hall and offices, among others.

The runway project comprises rehabilitation of transverse and longitudinal joints and safety areas, airfield lighting for taxiways and apron as well as runway bird and wildlife hazard protection system.