House to probe N19.2b Railroad Fix contract to ‘non-existent Company’

THE House of Representatives on Monday said it will look into the award of N19.2 billion railroad rehabilitation contract to some non-existent company by the Goodluck Jonathan government in March 2011.

The lawmaker solved to examine the circumstances surrounding the issuance of a certification of no objection to the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPE) that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) relied upon to award the contract to the business.

But it was learnt that the company, Eser Contracting and Industry Company Incorporated, did not fulfill the prerequisites for the deal.

House Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu known as the attention of his colleagues to the contract.

He alleged the Eser Contracting and Industry Company Incorporated was given the contract to rehabilitate the 463-kilometre Port Harcourt-Makurdi part of the Eastern railway line for N19.2 billion in March 2011, together with the work divided into three sections.

According to him, the sections are: the 463-kilometre Port Harcourt-Makurdi monitor; 1,016-kilometre Makurdi-Kuru track and 640-kilometre Kuru-Maiduguri track. The three sections were given to three distinct companies.

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Elumelu also alleged that while carrying out due diligence on Eser Contracting and Business Company Incorporated, it had been found that the business was no-existent.

The lawmaker said it was not duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), as demanded by the procurement Act; neither did it possess the essential tax settlement nor audited statement of accounts for the preceding three years.

He added that the company had no legal capacity to conduct business in Nigeria.

Elumelu said in the invitation to bid advertising for the contract, that was placed in the November-December 2010 variant of the Federal Tenders Journal, the certificate of incorporation was a significant requirement recorded among the criteria to bid for the job.

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