SAN FRANCISCO, October 28, (THEWILL) – Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement, Hon. Jumoke Okoya-Thomas (APC, Lagos), Monday said those indicted in the purchase of two bullet-proof BMW cars risk being sent to jail for five years without an option of fine.
Okoya-Thomas, who was reacting to the submission by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) that the controversial contract was awarded in violation of the Public Procurement Act, also blamed the government for failing to properly empower the BPP in the execution of its duties.
She said: “Section 58 (5) of the Public Procurement Act states that ‘Any persons, who, while carrying out his duties as an officer of the Bureau or any procuring entity who contravenes any provision of this Act, commits an offense and is liable to a conviction of cumulative punishment of (a) a term of imprisonment of not less than five calendar years without any option of fines and (b) summary dismissal from government services. ”
According to her, “Argument of lease purchase does not hold as long as they are going to pay with public funds and to say that NCAA is within the threshold makes it look like splitting the budget, which is another case on its own under the Procurement law”.
According to committee chairman, the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, has issues bordering on procurement with her committee which the Minister has ignored more than 12 times.
“Our Committee has the responsibility for the oversight of BPP and since the core objective of of public procurement is to ascertain value for money, we have been having issues with the Ministry of Aviation and agencies under it for sometimes now.
“It might interest you to know that we have issued out not less than 12 invitations to the Minister of Aviation but she has not deemed it fit to respond even for once. She has always been giving us one excuse or the other.
“Apart from the fact that there are issues on the rehabilitation of airports around the country over issues of value for money which Nigerians are not getting, if she had taken her time to honour our invitation, maybe she would have been able to avoid this issue of threshold.
“What these heads of agencies don’t realise is that when we send out letters like that, it wasn’t to intimidate or witch-hunt them but to rub minds and enlighten them on the nitty gritty of the provisions of the procurement laws.
“If she has been honoring our invitations, by now a lot of things would have been known to her and she would not be finding herself in this situation. When we invite these Ministers, my advise is that they should not see it as a personal thing but a way of forging a working relationship, ” Okoya-Thomas said.
She also blamed the Presidency for deliberately weakening the BPP as well as refusing to comply with the Procurement law on the issue of the Bureau’s Board.
