Reps tackle BPP on crude oil pre-shipment contract

Members of Parliament (MoPs) on Monday expressed grave displeasure over the usurpation of Presidential directive on the engagement of consultants and contractors for the pre-shipment inspection and monitoring of crude oil by Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

Oluwole Oke, Chairman, House Committee on Public Procurement who presided over the two-day investigative public hearing into the alleged abuse, breach and violation of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, delay in carrying out the procurement process two years after the Presidential directive.

“All the three arms of Government depend on the revenue from oil. Most States and Local Governments have been complaining that most revenues from the oil and gas sector are under-estaimated and valued. That is why we need qualified personnel that will handle this,” Oke said.

The lawmakers who expressed the concerns over the disregard for due process and BPP in the procurement process, informed the new BPP Director General, Mamman Ahmad, that any officer of the BPP convicted for breaching the procurement law attracts shall be liable of five years imprisonment and dismissal from public service, on conviction, without option of fine.

Earlier, the committee had issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance, to appear before it on Tuesday, 16 May, 2017 or face a bench warrant of arrest.

Worried by the alleged disregard for the Parliament, the Committee walked-out the representatives of Minister of Finance and officials of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

The summon followed a resolution taken at the commencement of a two-day investigative hearing into allegations of abuse, breach and violation of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 in the engagement of contractors for the pre-shipment inspection and monitoring of crude oil and gas export from Nigeria.

The Committee via a letter dated 8th March, 2017 invited the Minister to furnish the committee with relevant documents as well as appear for questioning on the subject matter.

While responding to inquiries from the lawmakers, Mamman Ahmad, Director General of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) who admitted that the entire procurement process was flawed, however noted that the process should have been canceled if not for time exigencies.

Ahmad who queried the rationale behind the petitions sent to the Presidency by the aggrieved parties, noted the Bureau has addressed various issues in the memo sent from the Presidency.

The BPP helmsman who later admitted that the Bureau frowned at the breach of the exercise, “what we did was to ask the Ministry to carry out post-prequalification exercise before the award of the contract.”

Ahmad who earlier stated that the procurement plan and location of the contracts were not submitted to the Bureau, noted that the Ministry later realised that the price was already pre-determimed and that the Ministry did not find out the procedure for the procurement.

Worried by the development, Oke who presided over the public hearing, said: Mr President directed the petitions to you. I have your memo to the Chief of Staff to the President, I also have the letter from the Acting President to you, that shows that there are issues.”

On his part, Gabriel Onyewife, who read Riot Act to the BPP Director General noted that the Legislative and Privilege Acts provides that anyone who give misleading information to the Parliament on conviction risks two years jail term.

Other lawmakers who frowned at the level of breach of the procurement law, including: Ossai Nicholas Ossai (PDP-Delta), Bulus Maren, chided the management of the Bureau for the delay in complying with Mr. President’s directive to expedite action in the engagement of the qualified consultants and contractors.

They also expressed regrets over the role played by Federal Ministry of Finance for mandating the contractors to re-submit bid after prequalification of bidders, in contravention of section 18 of the Procurement Act.

The Best was also chided for awarding three Lots to three companies owned by an individual and failing to ensure that the companies comply with extant laws and tax remittance to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), PENCOM, ITF and other statutory agencies.