Nigeria’s House of Representatives and other stakeholders on Thursday expressed concern over the award of $44 million contract for remedial works at Escravos channel -replacement of navigational aids and minor dredging at Delta state awarded to a company convicted in Switzerland.
According to the documents dated 6th March, 2018; submitted to the joint House Committee on Public Procurement and Port, Harbour & Waterways, chaired by Wole Oke (PDP-Osun), the controversial contract was reviewed from $44,998,053.76 inclusive VAT to $44,137,007.19 (N13,461,787,194.25) by Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
The petitioners also raised alarm over the alterations of the bid submitted without prior notice, thereby depriving it as the winner of the bid.
On his part, Adeyemo Abiodun, Managing Director of Dredging Atlantic Limited explained that the company wrote BPP and Nigeria Ports Authority concerning the altered figures, alleging that they were manipulated.
He maintained that the responses of BPP and NPA that they were adjusting the documents was totally wrong to insert figures without the consent of the bidder(s), as the figures were announced at the opening of the bid exercise.
Abiodun who accused the regulatory bodies of favouring Dredging International Services Limited, which submitted higher quotation at the opening of the bid, alleged that his company’s figure “suddenly became lower and ours became higher, so they said it was arithmetical error.”
In a swift response, Franklin Peterside, Legal Adviser of Dredging International Service Nig. Limited who denied the allegation that the company was convicted in Switzerland, explained that there was no connection between Dredging International Services Nigeria Limited and the convicted company which was registered in Cyprus.
While arguing that the petition was speculative, Peter side added that none of the company’s director was convicted anywhere in the world.
In his presentation, Director General of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) argued that the correction in the bid should have been made known to the company concerned, adding that signing of the bid document was not substantial to disregard or cancel a bid because it was to ensure transparency.
The BPP chief however denied participating in the bid exercise stressing that the awarding agency (NPA) did not send any formal invitation for participation.
In her response, Hadiza Bala Usman, NPA Managing Director who denied the allegation, noted that the agency is very careful with people thinking we condone corruption.
While stressing that the agency was guided by the Public Procurement Act, she observed that necessary legal actions have been taken in respect of the exercise, just as she assured that relevant documents would be transmitted to the joint committee.
Worried by the allegations leveled against the regulatory agencies and the preferred bidder, the lawmakers ranging from infractions and forgery of bids submitted, the lawmakers requested for original bid documents of all the companies, CAC registration, PENCOM, FIRS, ITF and NSITF certificates of all the participating companies.
According to the summary of the evaluation of the technical bids involving 22 companies, some of the companies presented expired PENCOM, ITF, IRR and TCC audited accounts.
According to the report, three companies namely: Dredging Atlantic Limited; Dredging International Services Big. Ltd and China Civil Engineering Construction Big. Ltd were described as “scored above pre-qualification threshold, however, CCECC was not pre-qualified.
The petitioner – Cadrell Advocacy Centre, a non governmental organisation alleged that “Dredging International Services Nigeria Limited, was infact and indeed a convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction in Switzerland and awarding the contract to the said company would be contrary to the clear provisions of S. 16(8e & f) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
“Dear Hon. Members of this esteemed committee, it is a notorious fact that documents available at the Swiss Embassy, reveal that there was an investigation by the office of the Attorney General, Department of International Affaire, Switzerland that Dredging International Services Ltd/Dredging International Services Cyprus (both subsidiaries of DEME Group Belgium and some officials of NPA were alleged to have been involved in a bribe for contract scandal of $20,000 and subsequently convicted on the 2nd of May, 2012 and fined one million Swizz francs, by the Court for bribing Nigerian officials,” the petition read in part.
The group further noted that “as reported in organised crime and corruption reporting project, an international magazine, NPA awards dredging contract worth $70,000 each year to Dredging International Services, without competitive bidding, as required by the Nigeria laws. And till date this convicted company is believed to have won jibs worth at least N717 billion and $2.280 billion from NPA.”
While calling for the intervention of the House, the petitioner represented by its Executive Director, Evans Ufeli, urged that the House should “invoke her powers under section 88 and 89 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) to blacklist/disqualify Dredging International Services Ltd and any convicted company from budding for or executing contracts in Nigeria.”
In his submission, Wole Oke, who chaired the public hearing observed that the “allegations are very very serious.”
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
