Discoveries during House of Reps probes into contracts awarded by public offices are in most cases bizarre and extremely incredible. JOSHUA EGBODO takes a look at a recent allegation of another controversial bush clearing contract at a time the citizens were forced indoors by outbreak of the Covid-19
Way back in 2017, information emerged, though not initially from the floor of the House of Representatives, on the controversial award of contract for bush clearing to set up camps for internally displaced persons around the North East in the wake of the intense attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents.
Intervention funds under the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) domiciled in the office of the SGF, were widely believed to have been misapplied.
Beyond the bizarre amount of money involved in the contract and the reported abuse of office by the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, Nigerians also felt bush clearing in the manner it was done was a misplaced priority.
This is when taking into consideration the conditions of the IDPs who were forced out of their ancestral homes, and living at the mercies of the elements.
The controversial contract was to cost the then SGF Lawal his job, and subsequent investigation and prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for allegedly awarding contracts to companies in which he had interests, fraud, criminal conspiracy, and diversion of funds.
It was revealed during the trial how firms linked to the former SGF were paid for the grass cutting contract, all amounting to N544 million. The trial, which was instituted at the High Court of the FCT, is yet to be determined.
Another bush clearing contract scandal?
Last Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives raised the alarm over allegations that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development awarded contracts for bush clearing, land preparation and other sundry issues to the tune of N18.9 billion during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2021.
While efforts were made by the Hon. Wole Oke-led panel to unravel the benefitting companies to get clarifications, only two of the 20 firms showed up.
Angered by the development, the committee which was verifying audit queries raised against MDAs by office of the Auditor General of the Federation, resolved to unmask the remaining companies, as only Easy Construction Company LTD and NUKAAG VENTURES LTD responded to the committee’s summon.
Prior to arriving at the resolution, the committee insisted that representatives of the Companies (Johnson Philip and Taiwo Idowu) respectively, were of the managerial cadre and so not competent to respond to issues before the committee.
This was more so, when the duo answered in the negative, when asked whether they were conversant with details of the submissions of their respective companies to the committee’s secretariat.
Why c’ttee asked questions
On why the panel was probing the said projects, Oke said: “During the lockdown of the country as a result of COVID 19, some companies took contracts worth about N18 billion for bush clearing from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, for land preparation, rehabilitation of soil plant lab and others.
“We cannot shave their heads in their absence. So, we have invited them to come and give us their own side by responding to the issues and showing us the places they are supposed to have cleared.
“They have to take us to the land they cleared. We have invited the Ministry of Agriculture and they have made a submission. But some of our members whose constituencies these projects were supposed to be domiciled doubted the existence of these projects and for a fair hearing, we have invited the companies that got the contract for them to come and tell this committee where and when the jobs were executed.
“We will wait till the end of the hearing today (last Tuesday) to see if they will appear. If they are not here, we have to do the needful to get them to come here”.
CEOs wanted in persons
The committee thus directed the duo who represented two of the companies to leave immediately, urging that the Managing Directors or Chairmen of the companies personally appear before it and speak to the submissions before the Committee.
Oke also directed the Clerk to write to the Registrar of the Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC) to furnish the Committee with detail information of the concerned 20 companies, including the year of incorporation, address of their corporate offices, names of the owners, directors and shareholders amongst others.
“We are not concerned about who won the contracts, what we are after is to determine value for money paid out and the sites of the projects, and we will carry that mission out to the letter. The Clerk should also write the Federal Inland Revenue Services, to furnish the Committee with information about the financial status of the Companies”, the panel chairman noted.
According to him, the Committee would carry out a diligent investigation into the matter, as it was keenly interested in finding out the location of the projects and their significance in terms of benefit to Nigerians.
Ministry disputes figures
In an immediate response to the alleged expenditure of N18.9 billion in the said contracts, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development denied spending the whooping sum for bush clearing in some states of the federation. In a statement issued last Wednesday by the Director in charge of information at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Joel Oruche, the ministry said the committee must have been quoted out of context.
“The attention of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has been drawn to a publication in the media on the report by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Account which stated that the sum of N18.9billion was used for bush clearing during the Covid- 19 lockdown.
“The Ministry wishes to state that if the statement emanated from the House Public Account Committee, the Committee must have been quoted out of context.
“To put the record straight, however, the Ministry at no time received any audit query to warrant summon by the Committee.
“It is also important to state that the Ministry did not spend N18.9 billion for bush clearing as reported.
“The ministry only carried out bush clearing and land preparation of 3,200 hectares in 8 states of Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Cross River, Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau and Ogun States as allocated by respective State Governments at a total cost of 2.5 Billion Naira.
“In addition, other projects executed by the Ministry during the Covid-19 period that sums up to the total sum quoted included the following: construction of rural roads in the six geo-political zones of the country, soil sampling and mapping, farmers registration as well as rehabilitation and the equipping of four National Soil Laboratories in Umudike, Ibadan, Kaduna and FCT, Abuja.
According to the statement, all these projects were successfully executed and verified by relevant government agencies and were part of the stimulus package under the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Programme of the Federal Government, aimed at generating employment and grow the economy to mitigate the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Where lies the truth?
Followers of the trend have been wondering where the truth in all of these is. The House committee relied on audit queries of the Auditor General to issue summons, the ministry while claiming ignorance of any of such queries, has also denied spending the said sum (N18.9 billion) in question, even as it confirmed execution of projects under the subject matter.
In the opinion analysts, the controversy should not be of another ‘grass clearing’ scandal that may end up with yet, a marathon legal tussle without a desired outcome. To them, appearance of the 20 companies allegedly involved before the probe panel is earnestly being awaited by Nigerians, who are very eager to know the whole truth.
