Presidency probes N752bn OBJ’s last-minute contracts

Taiwo Adisa, Abuja - 17.01.2008

INDICATIONS emerged on Wednesday in Abuja that the Presidency had commenced investigations into the last-minute contract awards by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The contracts, five in all, were said to be valued at over N752 billion. Sources in the Presidency informed the Nigerian Tribune that protest letters by some companies which felt shortchanged in the contract awards had inundated the table of President Umaru Yar’Adua, leading to the order by the President that the contract awards be investigated.

It was gathered that the contracts being complained about were awarded after the dissolution of the Board of Directors of the NNPC under the guise that the composition of the board violated NNPC Act.

It was gathered that approvals for the contracts were given by the former President after the exit of the board, whose members were said to have refused to approve the contracts.

Documents made available to the Nigerian Tribune showed that the contracts, including: A-6793 for the sum of $753,287,449; A-6794 for $1, 753, 787, 687; A-6795 for $1, 790, 901, 102 and A-6797 for $969, 267, 000 were awarded to Cameron, Saipem, Technip and Seadrill respectively.

The fifth contract meant for Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Land Lease and Operation of Deep Water Shore Base in Lagos and valued at $537, 000,000 was said to be awarded to a local company, Skillbase Limited.

The contract papers were earlier said to have been tabled before the dissolved board of the NNPC which was said to have refused to approve the contracts after scrutinising it.

The former President had asked the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Ufot Ekaette, to dissolve the NNPC board on May 21, 2007, while the former President ordered the then Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC, Engineer Funso Kupolokun, to constitute an adhoc management committee to approve the contracts.

A fresh dimension was added to the series of complaints about the contract awards recently when the presidency received a petition from Oilfields Integrated Logistics Support Services Limited (OILSS) under the chairmanship of Dr. Onaolapo Soleye.

The company, which also petitioned the former Minister of Energy, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, and former NNPC GMD, Engineer Kupolokun, claimed that it was shortchanged and that it won the technical evaluation jointly undertaken by NNPC/NAPIMS/NCD representatives and the Joint Industry Team early December 2006.
The petition, dated April 10, 2007 and which was recently deposited at the presidency, claimed that OILSS beat Skillbase Limited and GRML-LADOL to the second and third place respectively.

The petition stated: “This is a fraudulent act of illegality and financial recklessness which is on the one hand non-compliant with due process and transparency while on the other hand it smacks of both diabolical and sharp practices and it will be in your best interest to abort it forthwith.”

President Yar’Adua was said to have directed his team to investigate the veracity of the claims by the oil servicing company.