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The recently awarded N64 billion contract for the construction of the Abuja Airport runway project to Julius Berger Plc should be revoked, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has recommended.
The committee argued that the contract awardees, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) did not follow due process as specified by law.
The recommendation was contained in the report of investigations carried out by the committee and submitted to the lower chamber yesterday by its Chairman Bethel Amadi.
The report was laid on the floor of the House, signaling that the House in a Committee of the Whole will soon deliberate on the report and adopt some or all of the recommendations.
Although details of the document was sketchy as at press time, it was learnt that the lawmakers discovered that the contract was awarded to Julius Berger at a sum of N64 billion, even when PW Nigeria Ltd, another construction firm offered to execute it at the sum of N30 billion.
The lawmakers said it was simply outrageous.
The report questioned the rationale behind the award of the contract to Julius Berger whereas consultants for the project were not advertised but were chosen by FAAN on the recommendations of the BPP.
In addition, it alleged that the whole process appeared to have been skewed in favour of Julius Berger hence PW Nigeria Limited and other firms were tactically edged out.
During the public hearing on the contract, Executive Director with BPP Mr. Nebolisa Emodi alleged that the ministry of aviation during the era of former Minister of Aviation, Mr Babatunde Omotoba, insisted that BPP should issue a certificate of no objection to Julius Berger Plc even when the company quoted to execute the job at N72 billion.
In the course of the investigation, the report said, it was discovered that the ministry of aviation which had earlier claimed that N4 billion was half of the total figure needed for the construction of the runway, later went ahead to approve the contract at the cost of N64billion.
The report raised a number of questions including: Why did BPP rush to issue a certificate of no objection to Julius Berger for a contract that has an incomplete engineering design after writing a positive review report on Julius Berger? Why were the consultants for the project not advertised but chosen by FAAN on the recommendation of the BPP? Why was PW edged out of the contract unceremoniously, leaving only one favoured company?
The House Committee on Aviation accused the BPP of complicity in the authorization of a project it considered as grossly inflated and also questioned the intended use of the $65 million Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) fund for the project without appropriation by the National Assembly. According to the committee’s report, the BPP violated some provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 through its actions and inactions.
The contract was awarded following a process of selective tendering, design and build which made different construction firms to have the liberty of tendering different designs with different cost implications.
Throughout the investigative hearing, there was a clamour for an outright cancellation of the contract since it was generally believed to have been grossly inflated and the process leading to its award was said to have also failed to the due process test.
The contract was conceived to provide a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja following the depreciation discovered on the old runway built about twenty years ago.
The recently awarded N64 billion contract for the construction of the Abuja Airport runway project to Julius Berger Plc should be revoked, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has recommended.
The committee argued that the contract awardees, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) did not follow due process as specified by law.
The recommendation was contained in the report of investigations carried out by the committee and submitted to the lower chamber yesterday by its Chairman Bethel Amadi.
The report was laid on the floor of the House, signaling that the House in a Committee of the Whole will soon deliberate on the report and adopt some or all of the recommendations.
Although details of the document was sketchy as at press time, it was learnt that the lawmakers discovered that the contract was awarded to Julius Berger at a sum of N64 billion, even when PW Nigeria Ltd, another construction firm offered to execute it at the sum of N30 billion.
The lawmakers said it was simply outrageous.
The report questioned the rationale behind the award of the contract to Julius Berger whereas consultants for the project were not advertised but were chosen by FAAN on the recommendations of the BPP.
In addition, it alleged that the whole process appeared to have been skewed in favour of Julius Berger hence PW Nigeria Limited and other firms were tactically edged out.
During the public hearing on the contract, Executive Director with BPP Mr. Nebolisa Emodi alleged that the ministry of aviation during the era of former Minister of Aviation, Mr Babatunde Omotoba, insisted that BPP should issue a certificate of no objection to Julius Berger Plc even when the company quoted to execute the job at N72 billion.
In the course of the investigation, the report said, it was discovered that the ministry of aviation which had earlier claimed that N4 billion was half of the total figure needed for the construction of the runway, later went ahead to approve the contract at the cost of N64billion.
The report raised a number of questions including: Why did BPP rush to issue a certificate of no objection to Julius Berger for a contract that has an incomplete engineering design after writing a positive review report on Julius Berger? Why were the consultants for the project not advertised but chosen by FAAN on the recommendation of the BPP? Why was PW edged out of the contract unceremoniously, leaving only one favoured company?
The House Committee on Aviation accused the BPP of complicity in the authorization of a project it considered as grossly inflated and also questioned the intended use of the $65 million Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) fund for the project without appropriation by the National Assembly. According to the committee’s report, the BPP violated some provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 through its actions and inactions.
The contract was awarded following a process of selective tendering, design and build which made different construction firms to have the liberty of tendering different designs with different cost implications.
Throughout the investigative hearing, there was a clamour for an outright cancellation of the contract since it was generally believed to have been grossly inflated and the process leading to its award was said to have also failed to the due process test.
The contract was conceived to provide a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja following the depreciation discovered on the old runway built about twenty years ago.
