From Kemi Yesufu and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Public Procurement to investigate the alleged abuse, breach and violation of the Public Procurement Act by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

The committee is to report back to the House within six weeks for further legislative action. The decision of the House was sequel 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 Chukwuka Onyema.

Onyema in what he called, “Rescission motion pursuant to Order Nine Rule 1 (6) of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives” recalled that on March 9, 2017, a motion with the same title was moved but it was negatived.

But he explained that, “soon thereafter, fresh facts were made available, which would have influenced the House to pass the Motion if they had been available then.”

According to him, “all agencies of the Federal Government are obliged to comply with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 in their procurement of goods, works and services.

“Section 16(6)(d) and (8)(d) of the Public Procurement Act provides as follows: ‘‘(6) All bidders in addition to requirements contained in any solicitation documents shall: (d) have fulfilled all obligations to pay taxes, pensions and social security contributions. (8) Whenever it is established by a procuring entity or the Bureau that any or a combination of situations set out exist, a bidder may have its bid or tender excluded from any particular procurement proceeding if.”

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This is as he stated 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 Ministries, Departments, Agencies, commercial, industrial and private entities shall fulfil statutory obligations of their employees with respect to payment of training contribution to the fund.”

He said on December 7, 2016, the FIRS awarded a contract to Active Solutions Integrated Synergy Limited (ASISL), for the “Deployment of Revenue Monitoring Solutions on Telecommunication Companies, specifically for international voice, Internet and other value added network services for the FIRS.

He expressed concern that FIRS allegedly awarded the contract to ASISL notwithstanding the fact that the company was incorporated at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on December 2, 2016, just two working days before the award was made, which, he said, was indicative of the fact that the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 and other subsidiary legislations were not complied with.

Onyema equally alleged that the FIRS recently engaged the services of 100 tax

consultants to conduct tax audit and assessment on companies in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and that the engagement process was not made public and was not competitive as required  by law.

“The current anti-corruption war will be frustrated if statutory breaches like these are allowed to continue unchecked and that it will promote mediocrity, cronyism and may undermine the purpose of inbuilt checks in the procurement system,” he said.