The Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis presented its report on investigations carried out on the Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the Northeast to the Senate for consideration at the plenary session of Wednesday, May 3rd 2017.
Presenting the report, the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Shehu Sani (APC: Kaduna) stated that the Committee had carried out its modalities for assignment through various ways including calling for memoranda by different stakeholders, requesting for official bank statements of accounts from companies awarded contracts by PINE, requesting PINE’s account information from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), obtaining the procurement process adopted by PINE in awarding contracts and conducting a 3 day public hearing for all stakeholders involved in the humanitarian services and relief operations in the North East. He added that they had also embarked on oversight visits to sites that had been the hardest hit by the violence and investigated some of the activities of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies working in the region to obtain first hand information on the situation on ground.
However, in brief but detailed submissions, Sen. Shehu Sani (APC:Kaduna) revealed that a Technical evaluation analysis showed that all the companies that were awarded contracts were not qualified when assessed against the six (6) pre-qualification scheme set out by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). Other findings in the report included that the evaluation process carried out by PINE was flawed and its entire procurement process in the North East contradicted the Federal Governments Rules and Regulations on procurement. In particular, it mentioned that PINE took advantage of an emergency situation contract clause in the Public Procurement Act 2007. It also indicted the suspended Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Babachir Lawal for anchoring a company (Rholavision Engineering Limited) that was awarded a consultancy contract for the removal of invasive plant species even when it met only 3 out of the 6 pre-qualification criteria. The Committee also found that although Engr. Babachir Lawal resigned from the leadership of the company in September 2016, the CBN confirmed that he was still signatory to the account as of Wednesday, 15th February 2017. The Chairman was also critical on the large monies expended on non-priority areas noting that millions was spent on grass cutting on IDP camps while a meager sum of N2 million was spent on IDPs. N500 million was also said to have been paid to Rholavision by companies.
Some of the recommendations in the report included re-strategizing current intervention efforts to address the immediate needs of IDPs such as education, rebuilding of homes and infrastructure. It was also proposed that the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI) ensure proper coordination by ensuring that it is manned by persons of high integrity inclusive enough to accommodate the leaders of the various communities that are involved. Furthermore, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) was advised to undertake a re-evaluation of all contracts considered by PINE and recover any proceeds from over inflated contracts. The Committee also called on the Federal Government to prosecute all public officials who have misapplied or stolen resources or funds in breach of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and the Federal Government’s Financial Rules and Regulations. In this regard, it recommended further investigation of why over N500 million was paid to the suspended SGF’s Rholavision Engineering Limited.
It would be recalled that the Committee had produced an interim report, which had highlighted the untold hardship and poor living standard IDPs in the Northeast in December 2016. The interim report had among others recommended the removal and prosecution of the suspended Secretary General of the Federation (SGF), Engr. Babachir Lawal over allegations of fraud and breach of the Procurement Act in contracts related to PINE.
