The recent announcement that the suspension of the bidding process for the third phase of the Federal Government landed properties in Lagos and other states of the federation has been lifted should have brought smiles to the civil servants who are the main stakeholders with an abiding interest in bidding to eventually pay for the houses they currently occupy.

Most of the houses which will be offered for bidding belong to federal ministries, departments and agencies and have been occupied by various grades of civil servants who see the bidding as the opportunity of a lifetime to own a house and reduce the post-retirement ordeal of getting a house to live in with their families. They have been anxiously expecting the suspension of the bidding to be lifted, especially as they have already paid ten thousand naira as fees for expression of interest and many have actually been using their earnings to maintain the houses preparatory to eventual ownership.

But to the consternation of the civil servants there are strong indications that the resumption of the bidding process will only open yet another agonizing chapter in their legitimate interest to own the houses. The announcement by the Implementation Committee of the White Paper on the Commission of Inquiry into the Alienation of Federal Government Landed Property merely advised stakeholders and interested bidders to look out for further announcement on the forthcoming exercise but information circulating in the ministries, departments and agencies has caused a great deal of apprehension and tension among affected civil servants as it pertains to the introduction of certain new conditions for the bidding which are tantamount to putting them at a disadvantage.

Unlike the previous process, this time there will be a distinction between houses in the GRAs and those in other locations. Houses in the GRA will this time be made subject to public bidding for determining the sales price which was not the case before when sales prices were determined by the valuation of the Committee for all the houses affected. The focus on houses in the GRA for the public bidding raises strong suspicion of the motives of those who have decided to change the rules midway because it is obvious that the spacious environment of GRA houses with sufficient land for additional buildings or expansion has caught the hawkish attention of some vested interests who want to corner them with their financial muscles.

The public bidding being introduced for the GRA houses is nothing but a back-door means of giving undue advantage to the wealthy class while stacking the odds against the civil servants occupying them who have already invested in fees and maintenance expenses and were in a better position to afford the prices determined by valuation in the previous process.

The location of the houses has never before been isolated for different treatment as the Committee now intends to do and this exposes its members to allegations of being unduly influenced by vested interests, contrary to the norms and ethics of the civil service. This allegation is fuelled by the surreptitious manner a change in the rules is being introduced, so long after the guidelines have been issued and complied with by interested civil servants and also by the fact that only the wealthy class, in and outside the civil service have the cash clout to meet the prices to be determined by public bidding.

Apart from the callous disregard for the lifetime of service to the nation put in by the civil servants as well as their entitlement to a decent post-retirement life, the so-called public bidding for GRA houses will definitely unleash another round of restiveness and outrage in the civil service which has already had more than its fair share of anti-government agitation. The consensus among affected civil servants is that the enemies of the Yar'Adua administration are behind this ill-considered public bidding for GRA houses intended to create tension and political problems for Yar'Adua.

This was how the purported policy to deny ex-FCT Minister Nasir el-Rufa'i a new passport started surreptitiously and was even being implemented before it was later found to be the mischief of some overzealous but highly placed officials which The Presidency did not approve or authorize but which created local and international embarrassment. The public bidding for GRA houses will also breed corruption in the process of determining the prices and which of the bidders eventually gets the house.

Disregard for due process and promoting corrupt practices are all supposed to be targets for elimination under the 7 Point Agenda of the Yar'Adua Administration. It is quite disheartening to see how established official guidelines for sale of government houses can be brought under subterranean pressure and even amended to the disadvantage of civil servants by clandestine vested interests. There is no alternative to ensuring that there are no changes in the bidding process and no distinction between government houses in the GRA and those elsewhere if government's credibility is not to be severely dented.

Kankia, a civil servant, wrote from Lagos.