CONTROVERSY has erupted in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Abuja, over the N1.1 billion paid to a contractor for the supply of a dive support sea-going vessel to the Federal Government-owned Petroleum Training Institute, PTI, Effurun, near Warri, Delta State.
The Auditor-General of the Federation, in a report, had recommended that the contractor should refund the money. In the report signed by the Director, Programme and Performance, Audit Department, Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, A.O. Ajao, said the money should be refunded "with interest to the Federal Government of Nigeria immediately."
The fresh ripples in the ministry over the vessel, followed an order, last week, by the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), on the Minister of Petroleum Resources and the contractor to appear before it to explain the circumstances surrounding the payment of the money for a contract that was not performed.
Our source said the facts of the contract swindle were not disclosed to the minister, as some powerful officials of the ministry were involved in the deal.
The committee, led by Hon Ajibola Muraina, decided the summon the minister and contractor when it became obvious that the vessel, which had not been supplied to the institute, three years after it was supposed to have been delivered, had allegedly attracted a demurrage of over N600 million at $2,000 per day.
Muraina said the Acting Principal/Chief Executive of PTI, Mrs. Nnenna Dennar, informed the committee that the dive support sea-going vessel was in the custody of the Nigerian Embassy at Singapore, but information at the disposal of the National Assembly indicated that the vessel might not even be in existence and the facts of its non-existence had to be established.
Members of the House committee, who were on an oversight function, were taken aback when they were told that another N900 million was required to convert the vessel to a dive-support ship , almost the equivalent of what was used to purchase the vessel itself.
It was obvious that the entire deal was between the contractor and some persons in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Abuja, which awarded the contract in 2009, hence the committee decided to summon the minister and contractor.
"To us in the National Assembly, the vessel may not be existing, if you are paying demurrage, it means you have taken delivery, you have not taken ownership", Muraina stated.
He said the committee was interested in knowing the terms of the agreement between the contractor and PTI; at what point the institute was supposed to have taken delivery of the vessel and what happened; and the agents or consultant between the contractor and government .
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It has been an imposible task to dislodge corruption and High level conspiracy to loot from NNPC and the oil sector just because the Minister and master mind in all of the wrong things in that public institution is still the same person in the complicity . You wonder who told Jonathan the very people found to be culpable in the quagmire will be the appropiate fixers of the problem . An undaunting task I have never heard of in the history of of corruption, ever. The nation will never be able to fix and strenthen the NNPC looting and highjack untill there's full clean up of internal nature , thus giving way to new blood and new way of doing things by removal of sense of entitlement from within that public institution .Mr Jonathan's arrogance to plant his native home woman who have been the centre of monumental incompetence for the longest time in NNPC is indicative of a man with no apetite do anything but sit in ASo Rock to the chagrin of the nation he is priviledged to lead . NNPC have been a strong mafia run management organization and continue to be so because Jonathan has refused to dismantle the powerful structure . This explain why that Company have never had audacity to change since the begining and after the events that unravelled the conspiracy , loot and private ownership of the NN>PC following the historical maylay in the subsidy crises.