Era of Renovation : 5.1billion for NPA hqtrs renovation contracts, Reps fume.

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has grilled the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) over an N5.1 billion contract for the renovation of the agency’s corporate headquarters in Lagos and relocation of some of its offices.
The Auditor General of the Federation had queried the deal awarded in 2011 with a completion period of 15 months for lacking valid papers and contractors.
Speaking yesterday during the interrogation of the NPA management, led by its Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, the committee chairman, Wole Oke, faulted the award of such a big project with a legal document.
However, the NPA boss insisted that due process was followed having been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC). But the panel countered, stating that only the original copies of the agreement that could exonerate the agency.
Oke held that the photocopies before the committee were not readable, ordering that the audit query be stepped down for NPA to produce the originals.
The AuGF’squery claimed that as of 2013 when the contract ought to have been completed after full mobilisation, there was no valid contractual pact in place.
Meanwhile, the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) have faulted the N37 billion allocation for the rehabilitation of the National assembly complex.
Meanwhile, the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) have faulted the N37 billion allocation for the rehabilitation of the National assembly complex.
CHRICED’s Executive Director, Dr. Ibrahim Zikirullahi, told reporters yesterday in Abuja that the proposed expenditure was misplaced, noting that the funds could be channelled to other pressing needs of the citizenry.
He likened the action to the “misappropriation of the nation’s financial resources by the ruling elite in the country.”
The activist maintained that the “act underlines the fact that even the billions of dollars borrowed externally will end up being used for frivolous expenses that add no value to the lives of the citizens.”