A multi-billion naira contract for the dredging of Calabar and Ibaka Deep seaports was secured by a serving senator, investigation has revealed.
The contract was awarded to a recently incorporated Calabar Channel Management, jointly owned by the senator’s firm, Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited, and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). About N3 billion was voted in this year’s budget for the beginning of the capital dredging of Calabar Port alone.
It was also learnt that the senator’s company holds 53.3 per cent of the equity participation in the contract while the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) holds the rest, contrary to Chief Tony Anenih’s claim.
But Anenih, the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has petitioned Transport Minister Idris Umar over the contract.
He sent a strong-worded petition to Umar, querying the rationale behind the choice of the senator’s company to manage the two international channels.
Anenih, who is also the chairman of the NPA board, detailed in the five-page petition what he called irregularities that characterised the creation of the Calabar Channel Management as well as the flaws in the partnership agreement.
Although his petition put equity participation at 60 per cent for NPA and 40 per cent for the senator’s company, available records indicate that NPA owns 53.3 per cent while Niger Global owns 46.7 per cent. Of the 300 million shares belonging to Calabar Channel Management, 160 million belongs to NPA and 140 million to the firm.
Investigation also revealed that what exists is a partnership between NPA and Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company, not a consortium, as Anenih indicated in his petition to the minister.
According to Anenih, nothing recommends the senator’s company for such huge project, given what he called its “poor record with the Nigerian Ports Authority”.
The PDP board chairman reminded the minister that the company neither participated in the bid process for Calabar channel nor was its competence and capabilities assessed, as was the case with the other firms jostling for the same contract.
Anenih said: “The consortium has no reference whatsoever of previous jobs done. They were completely alien to the Calabar channel project and did not even take part in the bids of 2010 and the later procurement process.
“The consortium was not prequalified and did not pass through the selection process like other companies. It, therefore, follows that the Presidential approval for the appointment of the consortium, led by Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited to enter into a joint venture with NPA, which culminated in the agreement to form Calabar Channel, was obtained without following due process.”
This is the fourth controversial attempt at making Calabar River navigable. Only two years ago, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) cancelled the entire process following protests over NPA’s attempt to award the contract to itself.
The current conflict is prompted by the decision of the Ministry of Transport to circumvent procurement procedures as well as its refusal to adhere to BPP’s directive designed to achieve transparency. All these, as maritime watchers say, are prompted by their desire to impose their preferred firm on the nation.
Source: The Nation
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