Reps To Probe Award Of N19.2b Railway Contract To Phony Firm

The House of Representatives says it will commence investigation into the award of N19.2 billion railway rehabilitation contract to a non-existent company.

Eko Hot Blog understands that the contract was awarded during tenure of Goodluck Jonathan in March 2011.

The resolution to probe the award of the contract was sequel to a motion moved by house Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu.

The lawmakers would look into the circumstances that warranted the issuance of a certificate of no objection to the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPE) which the Federal Executive Council (FEC) relied on to award the contract to the company.

According to Elumelu, the bidding and process of awarding the contract was mired in corruption as the company, Eser Contracting and Industry Company Incorporated, that eventually won the bid, did not meet the requirements for the contract.

The lawmaker said the company was not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), as required by the procurement Act; neither did it have the valid tax document nor audited statement of account for the preceding three years.

Elumelu, who drew the attention of his colleagues to the anomaly, alleged that Eser Contracting and Industry Company Incorporated was awarded the contract to repair the 463-kilometre Port Harcourt-Makurdi section of the Eastern railway line for N19.2 billion in March 2011, with the work divided into three sections.

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He named the sections as  463-kilometre Port Harcourt-Makurdi track; 1,016-kilometre Makurdi-Kuru track and 640-kilometre Kuru-Maiduguri track. The three sections were awarded to three different companies.

The lawmaker said it was not  registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), as required by the procurement Act; neither did it have the required tax clearance nor audited statement of account for the preceding three years.

He added that the company’s activities in Nigeria amount to criminal activities as it has no legal basis to do business in the country.

Elumelu said in the invitation to bid advert for the contract, which was placed in the November-December 2010 edition of the Federal Tenders Journal, the certificate of incorporation was a major requirement listed among the criteria to bid for the job