Senate shelves debate on multi-billion naira transport ministry scam

By Emmanuel Ogala
December 5, 2010 02:24PM   


Around this time last year, a damning report detailing how Tony Anenih, a former transportation minister and leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and some of his successors in the ministry, allegedly misapplied billions of naira meant for the rehabilitation and construction of federal roads, was listed for debate - for the third time in a row - by the Senate.

It was not taken; but postponed by one month because the budget was considered the pressing issue at that moment. December came and went and it kept appearing on the order paper as a matter to be taken “next month.” The report which took the ad hoc committee 18 months to produce, kept appearing that way till February this year when it was again listed to be debated and adopted in March.

Later, at the same time that the late president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, became invisible, the report also disappeared completely from the calendar of the Senate and has not been re-introduced till date.

The transport probe report is filled with revelations of alleged serial malpractices, and shows how, in 10 years (1999 to 2009), through multiple contract fraud, connivance between contractors and government officials, some N633 billion was spent on only 4,752 kilometres of road; shortchanging the government to the tune of N47 million per kilometre of road.

Ayogu Eze, the Senate spokesman, said the report could have skipped the minds of those in the Senate leadership or, perhaps, the Rules and Business committee of the Senate failed to slate it for discussion.

However, Alloysius Etok, chairman of the Rules and Business Committee who arranges matters for the Senate said he is waiting for the green light from the leadership of the Senate to put the report up for debate.

“I’m trying to prioritise them (issues to be discussed by the Senate) and again, they (the authors of the report) did not finish that job,” Mr. Etok told NEXT. “I was trying to weigh the options which I am still trying to talk to the leadership to see if we can now take the report in part. If the leadership agrees that we treat it in parts, then I will bring it up for the interest of the public and Nigerian people. If the leadership says we should wait till they bring the second part of the report, then I will wait.” The report is the first of a two part intensive probe into the management of hundreds of billions disbursed by the Olusegun Obasanjo government as part of efforts to revitalise the transport sector - road, marine and air.

Heineken Lokpobiri, who headed the Senate ad hoc committee that investigated alleged corruption in the transport sector since 1999, said the second part of the report, which will detail the misuse of the funds meant for the marine and air transport sector during that time, will soon be submitted.

The report

The report shows that Nigeria’s public transportation sector is a cesspit of multiple contract fraud as contractors connive with government officials.

From the indictment of past and present government officials, to the recommendation for the reinstatement of those removed illegally, the report contains details of what its authors said was one of the nation’s largest portfolio of official scams.

According to the report, between 1999 and 2009, the ministry of transportation gave contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of 11, 591km roads at a cost of N1.7 trillion - about N87 million per km - and with only 24% of the roads achieved, 64% of the contract value has already been paid. This bring the expenditure to about N133 million per km.

The report said that under the reign of different ministers, road contracts were awarded depending only on estimates that were submitted by the bidding companies, without prior design by the ministry.

They also “fixed prices even before the roads were actually designed by the companies,” the report said.

Recommended for prosecution

The report recommends that Tony Anenih, Adeseye Ogunlewe, Obafemi Anibaba and Cornelius Adebayo, who headed the transport ministry within that period, along with their Ministers of State and the Permanent Secretaries be prosecuted.

The report also recommended for prosecution Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who was the permanent secretary during the administration of all the ministers except Mr. Anenih. He was alleged to have crafted a means of splitting contracts into sizeable amounts to bring the values within the approving authority of his office. With this, projects with single appropriation were allegedly awarded by him separately sometimes to non-existing companies.

The report also says that the former minister of Transportation and Works, Diezani Allison-Maduekwe, who literally wept while inspecting the condition of the Benin-Ore road, paid more than N1.2 billion into the private account of a company called Digital Toll Gates Limited, against the written advice of the Due Process Office.

Calls to the MTN number of Mrs Allison-Maduekwe and Mr Anenih were not picked. Efforts to reach Messrs Ogunlewe, Anibaba and Adebayo for their own comments were also not successful. The report described the engineering representatives of the transport ministry as some of the most corrupt and lacking in technical expertise. “They granted clearances to the contractors when the jobs were far from finished,” the report said.

Besides those in transport ministry, former officials of the Ministry of Finance and Bureau of Public Procurement (Due Process office), who were said to have provided funding and clearance for the un-appropriated projects, were also recommended for prosecution.

The report also details how about 46% of the companies that got jobs at that time were not registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission at the time of receiving their contracts.

The report said officers who refused to join the gravy train were re-deployed to other departments. It cited the case of a certain D. K Jime, whom the senators said should be recalled to his former job.

Mr Eze, the Senate’s spokesperson and a member of the committee said the report took so long because it needed to be thorough and detailed to reach the heart of the problem of road infrastructure in the country.

When asked when the report will be taken and probably adopted by the Senate, Mr. Etok replied “soon.”

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5649807-146/senate_shelves_debate_on_multi-billion_naira.csp

Many Leaders as you see them
Many Many disguise dem dey ooo
Animal in Human Skin
Animal in put tie ooo
Animal ni wear agbada


International ROGUE see his face.

Anenih , or "Mr. Fix it", is now an "untouchable" under GEJ's government. No shaking . Nothing dey happen.