A contractor may be probed by antigraft agencies for abandoning a Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) project after collecting a whopping sum of N1.5 billion to commence the project.
The Details: Nairametrics learnt that the contractor in question was given the money as mobilization fee in 2015 to construct the headquarters of CCB. However, he defaulted on the agreement after receiving the supposed money, abandoning the structure at foundation stage.
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The National Assembly Joint Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions were unhappy with this development, therefore, they sought the help of anti-graft agencies to get to the bottom of the matter.
Senator Ayo Akinyelure, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions made this public when the CCB, Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), and the Public Complaints Commission (PCC), appeared at the federal parliament to defend their 2020 budgets.
His worry heightened when he realized the CCB was unperturbed by the issue. He wondered why the management of the CCB or other government agencies chose to close their eyes to the issue for over four years.
“The Federal Government paid N1.5 billion to a contractor in a bid for the nation to have a befitting headquarters for the Code of Conduct Bureau in the Federal Capital Territory. As of 2015, the project was still at the foundation stage and nothing has been done since then.
“We want you (CCB) to furnish us with the project details, and if any refund has been made by the contractor. We expect the relevant anti-corruption agency to have started the probe of the contractor before now,” Akinyelure said.
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Further Details: The lawmakers were surprised when the CCB Chairman, Mohammed Issa and the Chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar disclosed that capital votes have eluded them since 2018. This disclosure made the Senate Committee place the three agencies – CCB, CCT and the PCC on first-line charges. The committee said this is one of the ways the agencies will enjoy more funding to carry on their activities.
“Considering the current complaints about poor revenue accruable to the Federal Government, the budgets of the CCB, CCT and the PCC should be on first line charge under statutory transfers.
“We are going to communicate that to the Executive so that whatever is approved for them would be released to them 100 per cent so that they could do their work effectively. We need to do this to show Nigerians that we are serious about corruption war in this country,” Akinyelure added.
