From Kemi Yesufu, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement has commenced investigation into the award of a contract for the deployment of revenue monitoring solutions on telecommunication companies by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to a firm allegedly registered five days before the contract was awarded.
The House on Thursday, March 30, 2017, mandated the committee to investigate the alleged abuse, breach and violation of the Public Procurement Act by FIRS.
The decision of the House was subsequent to the adoption of a motion entitled, “Urgent Need for Investigation into Allegations of Abuse, Breach and Violation of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, by the Federal Inland Revenue Service”, sponsored by a member, Chukwuka Onyema.
Onyema had also argued that Section 6(3) of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) Act 2011, provided that: “Any supplier, contractor or consultant bidding or soliciting contracts, businesses, goods and services from any Federal Government Ministry, Department, Agency, commercial, industrial and private entity shall fulfil statutory obligations of its employees with respect to payment of training contribution to the fund.”
Speaking during the opening of the investigative hearing on the matter, Chairman of the committee, Wole Oke, expressed displeasure over the failure of FIRS Chairman, Babatunde Fowler, to attend the hearing.
Oke was also unhappy with the refusal of the former chairperson of FIRS, Ifueko Omogui-Okauru, the Director General of ITF, Joseph Ari, and the management team of National Pension Commission (PenCom) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to make an appearance at the hearing.
The documents obtained by the committee showed that the Certificate of Incorporation issued by CAC to the company, Active Solutions Integrated Synergy Limited, has a December 2, 2016, date of registration, while FIRS awarded the contract to it on December 7, 2016.
Declaring the hearing open, Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, criticised the spate of breaches, adding that, “all procurement of agencies of government for goods, works and services are subjected to various processes and criteria as stipulated in the Public Procurement Act, 2007, which was enacted to curb the excesses found in the award and execution of government’s contracts.
“More importantly, this law was enacted with the aim of checkmating corruption and procurement irregularities, thus ensuring that government obtains value for money and by extension, enhancing the fight against corruption.
“The FIRS is an agency of government saddled with the responsibility of delivering quality service to taxpayers in partnership with other stakeholders. The agency is also expected to operate a transparent and efficient tax system that optimises tax revenue collection and voluntary compliance thus enhancing the revenue of government.