Senate may probe NNPC’s planned multi-billion dollar Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline contract

THE Senate, yesterday, said it would carry out a holistic investigation into the proposed award of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts of Ajaokuta- Kaduna-Kano(AKK) Gas Pipeline, totalling $2.317 billion (N834.12 billion), to the highest bidders once it discovered that due process was breached.

The Senate disclosed however that its attention had not been brought into the contract to be awarded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, even after it had sought in a letter to the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, a Certificate of No Objection to enable it obtain the Federal Executive Council’s approval for the construction of the gas pipeline.

Speaking with Sunday Vanguard, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Procurement, Senator Joshua Dariye, APC, Plateau Central, who noted that it was early for the upper chamber to get involved in the matter, said the planned construction was presently being handled by the executive arm of government, adding that it was the responsibility of the BPP to ensure that the bidding was carried out in a transparent manner with advertisement and publications carried out in the government tenders journal..

Dariye explained that the Senate would not get involved in an executive action at the planning stage, especially when the attention of the upper chamber had not been drawn into it, saying, however, that the Senate will not hesitate to carry out its oversight function even if it would be a probe into the matter as huge amounts of money were involved once its attention was drawn into it that the process of awarding the contract was breached during the tender, bidding and pre-qualification stages.

 

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