House to probe N19.2b Railroad Fix contract to ‘non-existent Company’
THE House of Representatives on Monday said it will look into the award of N19.2 billion railroad rehabilitation contract into some non-existent business by the Goodluck Jonathan government in March 2011.
Nevertheless, it was learnt that the firm, Eser Contracting and Business Company Integrated, did not fulfill the prerequisites for the deal.
House Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu known as the attention of his colleagues into the contract.
He declared the Eser Contracting and Industry Business Incorporated had been given the contract to rehabilitate the 463-kilometre Port Harcourt-Makurdi part of the Eastern railroad for N19.2 billion in March 2011, together with the work divided in to three sections.
According to him, the segments are: the 463-kilometre Port Harcourt-Makurdi monitor; 1,016-kilometre Makurdi-Kuru monitor, and 640-kilometre Kuru-Maiduguri monitor. The three divisions were given to three distinct businesses.
Elumelu also alleged that while carrying out due diligence on Eser Contracting and Business Company Incorporated, it had been found that the business was no-existent.
The lawmaker said it wasn’t duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), as demanded by the procurement Act; neither did it possess the essential tax settlement nor an audited statement of accounts for the previous three decades.
Elumelu stated in the invitation to bid advertising for the contract, that was put from the November-December 2010 variant of the national Tenders Journal, the certificate of incorporation was a significant requirement recorded among the standards to bidding for the project.
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