A
House of Representatives committee on Tuesday threatened to handover some
companies involved in the procurement of pre-shipment inspection contracts, who
allegedly forged tax certificates, to anti-graft agencies for prosecution.
The
lawmakers also resolved to invite former ministers of finance, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala and Nenadi Usman, former Head of Service of the Federation, Steve
Oronsaye; former Accountant General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla; and all
permanent secretaries of the ministry of finance since 1999 till date.
“They
are to come and defend themselves and let us know the various roles they played
within the period of their stewardship. The essence of this invitation is to
enable the investigative hearing have a balance position on all issues,” the
committee chairman, Oluwole Oke, said.
Mr.
Oke, Chairman House Committee on Public Procurement, stated this during an
interactive session with Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance over alleged breach
of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
Mr.
Oke, who warned against appointment of portfolio contractors by various Ministries,
Departments and Agencies, MDAs, decried the level of evasion of taxes.
“It’s
alarming that a company that collected a contract of $120 million only to pay
N20,000 as tax to Federal Government, to say the least this is annoying and
those are the things this investigative hearing is trying to right.
“We
have documents submitted by companies that are in total variance with what
FIRS, BPP, NSITF, PenCom and ITF gave us and you all know that our children and
sibblings benefit from ITF and if the right amount is not paid how will they
get trained.
“Henceforth
we will not hesitate to handover such companies to anti-graft agencies,” he
said.
The
committee also directed Federal Ministry of Finance to provide details of the
NESS accounts with the view to ascertain where the operating surplus goes into
at the end of each financial year in line with extant financial regulations.
Speaking
earlier, Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance disclosed that the process of the
pre-shipment inspection contract which started in 2016 was ongoing and will
soon be concluded.
She
said that the exercise was delayed due to the security nature of the
pre-shipment inspection contract which involved accessing of oil terminals.
Mrs.
Adeosun, however, assured that various issues bothering on tax evasion and
abuse of Procurement Act as raised by the Committee will be addressed.
She
further noted that the exclusion of some companies was based on security
matters adding that the NESS scheme was self-sustaining.
She
said: “It’s pertinent to start by stating that the process of procurement of
consultants for pre-shipment Inspection and Monitoring of Crude oil and gas
export from Nigeria, which the National Assembly is calling for investigation
into allegations of abuse, breach and violation of the Procurement Act 2007, is
still ongoing.
“The
ministry embarked on the procurement process for the appointment of
pre-shipment agents and monitoring of oil and gas exports in February, 2016
based on BPP’s approved invitation for expression of interest duly published in
two new national dailies and the Federal Tenders journal of February 8, 2016
soliciting expression of interest of bids from competent and reputable
consultants for engagement as pre-shipment inspectors and monitors of oil and
gas exports.
“A total
of 67 companies were pre-qualified out of 166 companies that expressed
interest, while 49 companies passed the quality based selection having scored
70 per cent mark and above.
“It’s
relevant to reiterate that from the beginning of the procurement process till
date, the ministry has been working closely with BPP having obtained necessary
approvals including advertisements, Request for Proposal (RfP) and approval to
adopt quality based selection method to select the consultants.
“However,
there is need to point the following: There was no procurement plan, because
the NESS is statutorily self-financing and is not expected to be included in
the annual budget, therefore budgetary is not applicable.
“The
delay in concluding the procurement of the consultants was because of various
procurement processes which include expression of interest, advertisement bid
opening bid evaluation, request for proposal, request for certificate of No
Objection from BPP,” the minister said.
While
ruling, Mr. Oke urged the minister to ensure inter-agencies synergy in the bid
to address various issues raised by the committee and the petitioners as well
as fix a time frame for the completion of the pre-shipment procurement
exercise.
He
also directed FIRS to submit details of all taxes paid by the companies
involved in the pre-shipment inspection contract, noting that most of them
understate their turnovers.
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