The House of Representatives Committee on Procurement has directed the anti-graft agencies to probe the acting Director-General, Project Development Institute (PRODA), Fabian Okonkwo, for arbitrarily cancelling and awarding contracts without recourse to Bureau for Public Procurement as provided by the PROBA ACT.
The House took the decision at the end of the committee’s investigation into alleged breaches of procurement process, staff victimisation and management problems in the institute
The committee Chairman, Nasir Ali Ahmed, said Okonkwo was culpable in the violation of the Public Procurement Act 2007.
He said: “We’ll use you as an example. I don’t think any other DG has been punished before. I can assure you that every other penalty that is in the Procurement Act, you’ll face it.
“You can’t sit in your office and decide on who gets what. I’m happy that the board of PRODA is here and is listening to the rot that’s happening at the institute.
“So, we’ll refer this case to the EFCC, ICPC and the NFIU. There was a transparent process, you came in and said to hell with BPP and decided to do what you want.”
The Director-General, BPP Babatunde Kuye who Mamman Ahmadu, confirmed the alleged breaches by the PRODA Acting DG. He said PRODA acting DG had in many instances awarded or canceled contracts in breach of the Procurement Act or informing the BPP as required by law.
Chairman of PRODA Board, Daniel Onje, also accused the acting PRODA DG of misleading the board by claiming that he had informed BPP and got approval to cancel the contracts.
“We stopped the contracts in national interest,” he said.
However, the PRODA Acting DG told the committee that he had written to the BPP regarding alleged illegalities in the contracts, and apologized for “misleading” the PRODA board on the issue.