Daily Trust (Abuja)
Tashikalmah Hallah and Nasidi A. Yahaya
1 July 2009
The House of Representatives yesterday insisted that French oil giant, Total Nigeria PLC must pay the N2.1m fine imposed on the company for failing to appear before its committee on Public Procurement over the Akpo oil Field Development Project [FDP].
A Nigerian oil firm, TILONE Nigeria Ltd was the bid winner of the contract but TOTAL allegedly gave the contract to a foreign firm Occeaneering AG in defiance to the NNPC's board of directors order.
But the Committee had queried TOTAL over the $43 million contract for the supply of Remotely Operated Vehicles [ROVs] it awarded through its subsidiary, TOTAL Upstream Nigeria [TUPNI] to Oceaneering AG, through an invitation it extended to TOTAL.
However, the French Oil giant failed to appear before the committee on Wednesday June 3, to respond to a petition by Tilone, a development that infuriated the lawmakers to impose N1.2m fine on TOTAL.
The fine according to the Chairman of the Committee, Rep Yusuf Maitama Tugga (ANPP, Bauchi State) was to cover the cost of hotel accommodation and transportation by other stakeholders who attended the investigative hearing held on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.
But TUPNI in its defense through its counsel, Chidi Momah admitted that NNPC directed it to award the contract to Tilone, but said that the contract award to Oceaneering was done with the full knowledge of the NNPC which has 50 percent interest in the project.
NNPC in its testimony through its representative, Mr. Otade A., however said its investigation based on the directive of the then Group Managing Director, revealed that TUPNI was not willing to give the contract to Tilone, adding that it was also obvious that TUPNI padded the company's bid through some in-house adjustments.
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