The Federal Government will spend N1.1 billion on a task force that will scrutinise ‘shady contracts’ in the country.
Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, disclosed this on Monday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Judiciary to defend the ministry’s 2022 budget.
The budget item with line code, ERGP30171327, provides for the “establishment of a federal taskforce and development of federal contracts administration system (FCAS) in Nigeria,” which is similar to the controversial Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) signed by previous administrations.
The P&ID had won a $9.6 billion judgement against Nigeria in a court in UK. The company claimed it entered a contract to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River state and that the deal collapsed because the Nigerian government did not fulfil its end of the bargain.
Malami said there were nine other contracts similar to the P&ID contract, adding that the P&ID contract did not go through the AGFs office or the federal executive council (FEC) for vetting, “because of the fact that there is a preliminary conspiracy among the key promoters of the contract.”
“If it has indeed, succeeded in taking away $10 billion out of our economy, those other existing contracts that were signed at the same time in breach could have now have been the contracts we will be faced with in terms of arbitration and associated issues,” he said.
“The existing structures are there, but they can only act in respect of contracts that are referred to the department.
“We have developed need for other circulars that these are intended clauses that could be tolerated in public interest and the interest of the nation in mind were attached.”
Malami said the proposed task force would review the existing problematic contracts that can undermine the economy as far as the P&ID is concerned.
