The House of Representatives has announced plans to investigate allegations of widespread financial misappropriation in the Federal Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
Hon. Kafilat Ogbara, Chairman of the House Committee on Women Affairs, disclosed this during an investigative hearing regarding petitions from contractors. The petitions concern the payment of N510 million to contractors who did not participate in the bidding process. This hearing was convened by the House Committee on Procurement, chaired by Hon. Unyime Idem.
At the hearing last Tuesday, Hon. Unyime Idem presented the petitions to the Minister, addressing the issue of the N510 million payments to non-participating contractors.
He said: “The matter that brought all of us here this afternoon is about a petition that was brought to us last month. The petition is about some projects in your ministry to the tune of N510 million that were bidded and subsequently award letter was given to the bidders, that is the contractors.
“But surprisingly, while some of the contractors according to their claims said they have executed the projects and some said they were still waiting to get mobilisation from your Ministry to enable them execute the projects, they were shocked to know that some of those projects were already paid for by the Ministry of Finance.
“From their discoveries, when they visited the Ministry of Finance and they found out that while either the money they spent to execute the contracts were not paid or the request they made in your Ministry asking for mobilisation was not paid and the Ministry told them that all those projects we’re paid for.
“And unfortunately they paid into the wrong account. What I mean by wrong account is that the people they paid the money to or the contractor they paid the money to, did not take part in the bidding process they were not given award letters but were surprised too that the money were paid to the account that did not take part in the entire procurement process.
“So, the contractors numbered about 10 came to the National Assembly to protest of irregularity that is going on regarding the process. In fact, they described the process as procurement fraud, that it’s incumbent upon the Committee in charge of Procurement to come to their rescue by asking the Ministry to reverse the N510 million from the wrong accounts that the money were paid to, to their own accounts.
“Because they claimed that some of them have already done the job while some said that ‘wait they are waiting for mobilization’. So, that’s why we are here,” the lawmaker noted.
Idem further disclosed that the Committee has written the office of the Accountant General, to furnish this Committee with the position of this alleged malpractice or fraud that is rocking this particular contract. We wrote to that office and they have given us the details of the payment they have made in respect to the projects in question.
“So, we have those documents with us here, so we’d like to hear from you because I think the last time we met I gave the Ministry the assignment to contact the Ministry of Finance and Accountant General to confirm if the documents submitted to us are anything to rely on in terms of being the evidence before this committee.
“So, I don’t know whether you have been able to confirm what we sent to you or whether you have gotten independent information regarding these transactions?”
Hon. Udem also affirmed that there are some of the aggrieved contractors present during the investigative hearing.
In her intervention, Chairman, House Committee on Women Affairs, Hon. Ogbara who expressed displeasure over the inordinate attitude of the Minister to the Committee, argued that she has not been cooperative despite all efforts made to synergize with her.
She said: “I’ve got so many petitions already against her. Even the people working with the Ministry, have complained that she works alone.
“Apart from the excuse she has given that she wants to try and get her people to come with her, the Perm Sec and relevant personnel that need to appear before this Committee, I will just want to appeal to the chairman to give her time, not too long because we also inviting her from the Committee on Women Affairs very soon.
“The notice is already out, I don’t know whether they’ve sent it to her office. So, we also invited her, because I don’t understand, I have been trying to work cordially with her as a woman. As women supporting women, we should work together, but when you’re trying to work with somebody and the person is not even trying to learn or trying to work in the way you expect.
“Now, there are so many petitions, diversion of money, misappropriation of funds, people’s jobs in the Ministry. You just misappropriate paned the money, anyway, anyhow from all the complaints that we have got, so we are going to invite her from the Committee as well, and I want the Chairman to choose the nearest day possible.
“All the personnel she’s talking about, they are right there, they are indoors in the Ministry, if you want them to come tomorrow morning, they should be here. Even when the Committee went to the Ministry on oversight, they didn’t have records to show and they were just mixing up different things, with different terminology, misappropriated a lot of funds for different projects, they used the same name just turn it to another name, you know, duplication of contracts and all that. I can go on and on,” Ogbara lamented.
In response to the inquiry, Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Uju Kennedy-Ohaneye said: “after we came here the last time, the information given by the Accountant General’s office was wrong, they gave you totally wrong information.