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Mustapha Maihaja, Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Wednesday denied allegations bothering on the N1.6 billion approved for procurement of relief materials for 16 states ravaged by flood in 2017.
Maihaja gave the clarification while responding to questions from Ali Isa, chairman and members of the Ad-hoc Committee investigating the alleged breach of public procurement Act, 2007.
He explained that the Agency adhered strictly with relevant provisions of the Procurement Act in the award of contracts under emergency situation.
He argued that the agency’s administrative and procurement systems were flawed when he assumed office in April 2017, but took necessary steps to correct the anomalies in line with best practice.
Maihaja explained that the agency did not commence distribution of relief materials to 16 states affected by flood in 2017 despite being an emergency situation.
He emphasised that the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) at no time faulted NEMA’s Procurement procedure after which Certificates of no objection were released.
“The floods started from about March through October in 27 states and funds were released in September. We have documentary evidence to support this. The agency was approached in July to give a list of the affected States and 26 were identified. N1.6 billion was released for the procurement of materials for them”.
He argued that the emergency situation and quantum of activities around the period were overwhelming, adding that the delivery of relief materials did not take six month after release of funds.
“I will never intentionally tell the House a lie. On this question, documents were asked for by the Committee and the answers to all the questions were contained in the documents we provided.
“Because of the situation at hand, we were able to delivered materials to nine states within five days but I can’t remember the specific dates.
“I plead that opportunity is given to us to present records on delivery because some States don’t acknowledge receipt of supplies on the actual day of delivery but much much later.
“For instance Edo State has not acknowledged receipt of materials till now, so the date of acknowledgement doesn’t signify the actual date of delivery sometimes.
“There are delays at time on deliveries but we don’t take six months to begin intervention. We did not start delivery after six months, we started much earlier in some while some started late due to procurement and delivery issues which may be responsible for the delay but we delivered majority in good time.
“When I came on board in late April, 2017, I met N4.6 million in our coffers and liability of … and our monthly allocation of N500 million cannot go a long way in procuring these materials.
“This was also the time when the international agencies announced the scaling down of their funding by 80 percent. That was the situation on ground when you came on board.”
On the allegation that some companies were not eligible for contract for failing to meet due requirement on tax and pension clearance as provided by the Procurement Act, said no law was breached because steps were taken to adhere to the Procurement Act.
He said: “We adhere to the Procurement Act, to the best of my knowledge we complied, we did not violate the Act.
“By virtues of the relevant provisions of relevant Procurement Act, we have not breached any rule. What we do is, we looked at the Act and we took our time to follow it. While this was going on, we wrote to the BPP and they replied and they never faulted our process.
“The BPP did not say we have done any wrong but that we should submit the list of missing items identified and kept on updating. We have done that and submitted to them,” NEMA helmsman told the lawmakers.
Speaking earlier, the lawmakers directed that all the suspended NEMA personnel as well as present and former procurement officers should appear on Thursday.
They also frowned at the delay in the distribution of relief materials six months after release of funds, while also engaging companies that have tax issues.
According to the lawmakers, most of the companies engaged by the agency for the procurement of the relief materials did not pay relevant taxes to National Pension Commission (PENCOM) and Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) as stipulated in the extant laws.
While ruling, Ali Isah, chairman of the Committee resolved to adjourn the public hearing to Thursday, with the appearance of the suspended personnel.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
