NPA’s House of Sleaze

President Goodluck Jonathan

A sudden revenue surge of N450 billion given to the NPA management in five years sends the authority reeling in controversial contract scam
By Bayo Bernard
A whoping sum of N450 billion naira is not a child’s play. But that is the revenue that accrued to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in the last five years. The revenue surge which is partly due to the concession of ports to private companies, has become a curse rather than blessing for the port landlord as NPA is now known.
The NPA management led by Suleiman Omar, an engineer appears to see the rising revenue profile as a means to be reckless with public funds put in their care. Perhaps, the management also perceive this as an opportunity to enhance their financial status or those of their cronies. That simply explains why the authority management has been doling out contracts in the manner that leaves stakeholders in the maritime sector spellbound. The Omar led management authority due process, which is the mantra of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Anytime from now the management has concluded plans to award the contract of Calabar dredging channel, worth several billions of naira to a contractor which in the past has shown incapacity to do such jobs. According to investigations by The Source, the NPA has decided to ‘favour’ the said contractor inspite of the fact that it submitted the highest bid for the job.
One of the bidding companies, Jam de Nul recently blew the whistle claiming that the action smacks of corruption. The company has petitioned the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPE) on the issue.
Five companies bidded for the contract, but according to Jan de Nul. It sent in the lowest bid price of Euro79,083,454. China Harbour one of the bidding companies quoted Euro90,910,731.09; Dredging International bidded Euro 101,829,300; Lagos Channel Management Euro 132,395,176.03 and Van Oord Euro 139,574,782.56. From all indications the NPA appears bent on awarding the contract to Van Oord.
Apart from abandoning due process in the bidding process, as BPE was supposed to be notified of procurement of such magnitude after which it (BPE) is expected to grant a Certificate of “No Objection,” having certified that objections are not raised by parties to the contract, the allegedly favoured company has no track record which the NPA is relying on.
Van Oord is one of the contractors that is awarded the same contract four years ago. They abandoned site as soon as they executed the contract halfway. Van Oord and Jan de Nul collected $56 million without achieving the desired result. The two companies were awarded the contract to scoop out 25 million cubic metres of sand but, as it turned out, nothing close to that was achieved.
The NPA management seems to have the penchant for awarding contract bazaar. Dependable Maritime sources informed the magazine that the authority will labour to explain how it spent a staggering N5 billion to renovate its head office in Marina. The issue is currently generating furore in the industry. A stakeholder who spoke anonymously for fear that he may be blacklisted told The Source last week that “NPA is behaving like the thespian prodigal son. How could you renovate one single building with N5 billion? I really think the management is driving the NPA into the brink.”
The signature of the Omar-led NPA appears to be visible everywhere. Infact the NPA is now considered as the cesspool of corruption among government agencies in the Maritime sector.
The decision to renovate the multi-storey corporate headquarters began two years ago. But some officials of the NPA were said to have objected the plan agreed upon by the former management led by AbduLsalam Mohammed and it was abandoned.
But when Omar took over from Mohammed, he quickly put ink to paper for the multi-billion naira renovation contract.
Now questions are being raised by stakeholders on the freewill spending, the management has embarked on recently. For example, Emeka Ezeh, Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprisers, BPE has written to the Minister of Transport, Umar Idris over the petition of Jan de Nul, demanding to know why the BPE was bypassed in the decision to award the Calabar Channel contract.
Tongues are also wagging over the decision of the authority’s management to rent three floors on the NAL Towers for a princely sum of N116 million.
The rented offices were the alternative places where the NPA staff that were dislodged by a fire outbreak that occurred in the Headquarters few years ago, were relocated. The question is not whether the staff were relocated, it is rather on the wisdom behind the decision to splash that huge sum to rent the apartment for three years. Some analysts versed on the issue of estate management question the wisdom behind such transactions.
Aside the NPA has other buildings where some staff could have been relocated. This could have saved millions of tax payers money. For example, some NPA properties are located on the high brow Apapa and Ikoyi. Some of them are the No. 17, North Avenue, Barrack Road, Child Avenue, Park Road and Malu Road. Why would the authority prefer that these properties are left to lie fallow instead of putting them to good use?
In the face of dilapidated infrastructure in the ports stakeholders expect revenues accruing to the NPA to be expended more judiciously. But that seems not to be the case.
When The Source contacted Micheal Ajayi, General Manager, Public Relations of NPA on the funds released to the authority within the five-year period and how it is being expended he declined comments and rebuffed the request by the magazine to speak to Omar, Ajayi was also not forthcoming. However, some stakeholders are already contemplating further action on the alleged improper use of the authority's funds.