[size=14pt]Ministry officials, contractors face prosecution over Apapa Port road[/size]
Thursday, 17 November 2011 00:00 HORATIUS EGUA, Abuja

*FEC approves co-financing of Lagos urban transport project

Top civil servants in the ministry of transportation, along with the owners of a Chinese firm, may be prosecuted, following allegations of connivance in the presentation of false documents to bid for contract for the construction of internal road infrastructure, at the Apapa Ports.

BusinessDay gathered that President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to thoroughly investigate the contractor and the civil servants involved in the scam, and that those found culpable should be brought to book.

Investigations indicated that the Chinese firm lied that it had executed a N7 billion road contract in Niger State, and that investigation by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) indicated that the contractor lied.
“The President was angered when he discovered that civil servants assisted the contractor in the falsification of the document to secure the job, and has directed that those involved be arrested and investigated by the EFCC,” a Presidency source told BusinessDay.

The contract which will cost the government about N2.2 billion, covers 1.6 kilometres of the internal roads in the ports.

Briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by the President, Emeka Eze, director- general (DG) of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) citing the BPP Act, said as long as the contractor lied over the contract, the company would not be able do business with the government for five years.

Eze, who was joined at the briefing by Labaran Maku, minister of information, Idris Umar, minister of transport, Rukkyat Rufai, minister of education, and Akinwunmi Adesina, minister of agriculture said “It is not so much as to how much money would have been involved. It is more of did you lie? Because if you give it to somebody else, you still have to spend money for the person to get the job done. But the fact that you lied. And when you lie under oath, it is a crime under the law”.

Eze said the BPP law provides that the company should be barred from doing business in Nigeria for five years, if found guilty, and all the officers involved would be jailed for at least three years, without the option of fine, and a maximum of five years, as well as a fine of 25 percent of the procurement, if they are found guilty.

The move, he explained is aimed to further support the BPP’s fight for transparency in public expenditure, and is a clear demonstration of government’s plan to further deepen transparency in public procurement processes in Nigeria.

Speaking on the pilot programme for the take off of e-learning facilities in the six geo-political zones of the country, Rufai said the move was to make it easier for Nigerian students to access information in the cyberspace.

The take- off universities are the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Federal University, Yola, University of Maiduguri, Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, University of Uyo and the Federal University of Technology Owerri.

Others are the Osun State University, Kogi State University, Adamawa State University, Kano State University, Niger Delta University and Abia State University.

Other approvals by the FEC, include the rehabilitation of the Lower Usman Dam, the $100 million French Development Agency (AFD) credit, for co-financing of the Lagos Urban Transport Project 2 (LUTP).

http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/76-hot-topic/29839-ministry-officials-contractors-face-prosecution-over-apapa-port-road

N2.2 billion for 1.6 kilometres of road?
You gats to hail Nigerians! Its high time we started killing such thieves.