By Ifeyinwa Obi
A firm, Jan De Nul Limited, has accused the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, and its consultants, Messrs AIM Consultants of breaching due process in the award of the contract for the dredging of the Calabar Port.

This is the third controversial contract awarded for dredging the port. The late Gen. Sani Abacha’s regime awarded the first contract in 1996 at N3 billion while the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration awarded the second in 2006 to two different dredging companies at $56 million.

The incessant failure of the contract for the dredging of the 84-nautical mile Calabar sea port had stalled the smooth take-off of the port in the past 20 years.

In its petition to the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, Jan De Nul Limited claimed that it submitted the lowest bid price for the contract and that NPA had consistently refused to respond to its request for information regarding the contract.

The company alleged that NPA was considering offering the contract to companies that were previously disqualified and also submitted the highest bids.

BPP’s Director-General, Mr. Emeka Ezeh, has referred the matter to the Transport Minister, deman-ding to know why NPA took such a decision without reference to the bureau.

He reminded the Minister that procurement of such magnitude ought to have passed through BPP for a certificate of “No Objection,” which will be issued after grievances raised by the contending parties had been addressed.

NPA had, three months ago, requested companies interested in the dredging of the Calabar River Channel from the Calabar Port to the sea to put in their bids.

Six companies, Jan De Nul, Dredging International, Westminster Dredging, China Harbour Engineering, Van Oord and Lagos Channel Management, indicated their interest and were subsequently pre-qualified.

However, after the opening of the bid tender, according to the petitioner, two of the six companies, Van Oord and Westminster, were disqualified for failure to submit bond security, while NPA still allowed them to participate in the bid.