Sen Nwaoboshi: Due process followed in N34bn NDDC contract award

Following media reports that firms linked to Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, violated procurement processes and procedure in securing N3.4 billion contracts for the provision of plastic chairs and desks for schools in the Niger Delta Region, fresh facts have emerged that due process was indeed followed in the matter.

Information made available to The DAILY TIMES also revealed that the contracts were awarded in strict compliance with the NDDC procurement laws and the jobs duly advertised for competitive bidding.

After the initial reports suggesting foul play, multiple sources close to the contract awarding committee at NDDC hinted ‘that the NDDC awarded the contracts in strict compliance with the Procurement Act and that no breach of Public Procurement Act was done in the process of awarding the contract by the Commission’.

Stemming from that, it was also made clear that no money was lost because NDDC had stopped advance payment for any jobs since 2007, according to its own rules and procedures for awarding contracts.

The Commission was said to have been very committed to the award of the jobs ‘because education of youths and the provision of classroom facilities are integral parts of the priority in its mandate, just as primary and secondary education are key for youth development in the Niger Delta Region.’’

Specifically, on the issue of due process, it was discovered that the NDDC office has a Due Process Unit alongside other units with a view to ensuring compliance with the Public Procurement Act, so that if the companies listed complied with all the processes and were eventually awarded the contracts, the companies would have been deemed to be in good stead.

Part of the accusations that was levelled against Senator Peter Nwaoboshi were on the proprietary or otherwise of his associates and relatives bidding for contracts, but there are suggestions in some quarters that associates of public officers are Nigerians who have right to seek contracts they desire without any form of discrimination or inhibition, in so far as issues of morality and abuse of office and due process are not in contention.

The Senator himself has been variously quoted as saying “I don’t appraise bids for contracts, I don’t award contracts and I don’t pay for contracts executed. So why do people link me with contracts of Nigerians who are struggling to survive.

Perhaps because of some false petitions were engineered by my political opponents. They have failed woefully because my constituency knows am a performer and are solidly behind me”.

In addition, it was claimed that the contracts were budgeted for by NDDC in 2014 before the Nwaoboshi became a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Fresh information made available to The DAILY TIMES point to the observation of due process.

There were also fresh claims that the brother to the senator has been a long-standing contractor with the NDDC.

In specific terms, the senator’s brother was said to have been a contractor to the NDDC at least five years before the senator took office at the National Assembly in Abuja.

Regarding some of the companies said to have been mentioned in the episode of claims, the senator’s brother is said to have interest in only one of the companies.