From Kemi Yesufu, Abuja
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) to investigate allegations of abuse of contract award processes by the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) to the detriment of local firms.
The committee is to report back to the House in six weeks for further legislative action.
The directive from the House was subsequent to the adoption of a motion entitled: “Recurring Allegations of Impropriety and Bias in the Contracting Process between NAPIMS and Nigeria’s JV/PSC Partners and their Blatant Disregard of Statutory Provisions and Infractions against Nigerian Companies”, sponsored by Gaza Jonathan Gbefwi.
In his lead debate, Gbefwi told the House of many petitions against NAPIMS, alleging the abuse of contract award process in favour of preferred contractors.
According to the lawmaker, in the last eight years, some petitioners have accused NAPIMS of initiating numerous contract awards (catering, accommodation, vessels, etc) without completion and renewal of such contracts continuously in favour of the existing contractors.
Gbefwi further said Nigerian firms have severally complained of the inclusion of contractors, who were not part of the initial bidding process, arbitrary change of originally approved commercial evaluation criteria after submission and evaluation to favour a particular contractor and the award of contracts at exorbitant rates above current market realities.
“There has been award of contracts to foreign companies at the expense of local companies, often at a higher cost and many cases of the agency refusing to resolve and approve settlement of pecuniary infractions against Nigerian companies by major oil companies even when such cases have been concluded in favour of the petitioners, just as there have been increasing reports of corruption by top officials of the agency,” he said.