#NotebookGate: Denial Backfires, Reveals More Procurement Irregularities in Oyo State

by Olanrewaju Oyedeji

Oyo State government’s attempts to defend itself against the revelations in Dataphyte’s report of “Notebook Gate” has backfired spectacularly leading to even greater indictments on its public procurement processes under the current administration.

The Oyo state government through its Ministry of Information released a statement following Dataphyte’s report of bid splitting and contract inflation, to deny that the state awarded cost-inflated contracts.

The press release which was completely silent on contract splitting by Hamzat Oriyomi, claimed that contrary to the N2,100 cost reported by Dataphyte and republished by several news platforms including Sahara Reporters, stated the Oyo state government awarded the exercise book contract at N150 per copy and to 8, not four companies.

Governor Seyi Makinde, during his speech at the one-year anniversary of Agidigbo FM, Oriyomi’s Radio Station also did not comment on his friend’s violation of the public procurement law but swore to resign as Governor of the state if investigation showed the notebook contracts were inflated.

Following Dataphyte’s request for evidence to back the claims in the press release, the commissioner for information, Mr Wasiu Olatunbosun provided a list of the names of the contractors but referred Dataphyte to the state’s bureau of public procurement for details of the amount awarded to each contractor.

According to the Commissioner, the eight different companies who got the contracts were; Insider Multipurpose Ltd, SURE Etiquette Media Plus, JEDA Global Ventures, OPAL Multinational Resources Limited, ASP Integrated Ventures, PORSH Diversify Ventures, SEWA International Ventures and ICON Printing Press Consult. The Commissioner had stated that the state government awarded the contract in 14 lots to 8 contractors. He further noted 2.7 million notebooks were to be supplied at the price of N150-N180 by these 8 contractors.

While the information on the State’s Public Procurement portal did not tally with what the Commissioner claimed, his list exposed many fault lines in the state’s procurement process.

The state bureau of procurement must have missed the relationship between the governor and his friends who have since 2019 been awarded multiple contracts worth between 500 million and 640 million.

Continue reading: https://www.dataphyte.com/investigations/notebookgate-denial-backfires-reveals-more-procurement-irregularities-in-oyo-state/

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