By Tordue Salem, Abuja
Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives on Thursday grilled the Management of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, over a contact awarded at the cost of N5.1bn for the renovations of the its Corporate Headquarters in Lagos
The Auditor General of the Federation had raised a query on the contract awarded in 2011 with a completion period of 15 months but without a valid signed contractual agreement with the contracting firm.
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Speaking during the interrogation of the management of the Corporation led by its Managing Director, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Rep. Wole Oke(PDP-Osun), expressed reservation over the award of such contract worth billions of naira without a valid signed contractual agreement as alleged in the query.
However, the NPA boss stated that the contract was awarded by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, and that available records showed that, it was a valid contractual agreement
But the Committee insisted that only the original copy of the signed agreement would clear the Agency of the audit query
As the available photo copies of the documents presented before the Committee were not readable, the Committee ruled that the audit query be stepped down for the Agency to produce the original copy.
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The contract was awarded for the renovations of the NPA Headquarters in Lagos and relocation of some of offices from the Headquarters to other locations.
The query alleged that as at 2013 when the contract ought to have been completed and money paid out, there was no valid signed contractual agreement in place.