Onwuka Nzeshi
26 October 2009
Abuja — Director General, National Office for Technology Acquisition (NO-TAP), Dr. Umar Buba, has faulted the position of the Bureau of Public Procure-ment (BPP) on the N600 milion earmarked for the construction of the headquarters of NO-TAP.
Buba declared that NOTAP will rather return the budgetary allocation for the project as unspent funds instead of following the rigorous procedures prescribed by BPP on the utilisation of the funds.
Buba, who disclosed this at a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, said that N200 million appropriated for the same project in 2008 was returned as unspentfunds because of the rigours of due process and the result in the inability of NOTAP to access the funds.
Buba told the lawmakers that the contract was awarded to a particular contractor but could not be mobilised appropriately for lack of funds. He added that the N600 million provided for the project in the 2009 budget was inadequate.
According to him, he had wanted to open a new bid for the project but was prevented by the BPP who insisted that the project should beawarded to the initial successful bidder in 2008.
He disclosed that the bidder had forwarded a petition to the BPP who later forwarded the matter to the Presidency thereby further stallingthe project. The petition was that NOTAP was trying to re-award the contract they had already won and were waiting to execute.
On the level of NOTAP's compliance with the 2009 appropriation, Buba disclosed that he could only muster 7.31percent in implementation due to the scuffle between his agency and the BPP. Chairman of the House Committee, Hon. Abiodun Akinlade, frowned at the decision of the NOTAP boss to return appropriated funds to the treasury at a period the country was poised to ensure thefull implementation of its annual budgets.
Akinlade said it was unethical for any agency to refuse toimplement the budget passed into law and warned that the National Assembly may soon begin to impose sanctions on Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that failed to implement annual budgets.
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