The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has backed the stand by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that the award of contracts for the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project followed due process.
NNPC had two days ago faulted an online report that it inflated the contract for the project by about $1.5 billion. It described the report as baseless and malicious, insisting that the all contracts for the project followed due process and was cleared by the BPP.
This position was corroborated by the Director-General of BPP, Alhaji Maman Ahmadu during a meeting with the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ahmadu stated that the procurement for the project followed due process.
He said: “the person who spoke to you that mentioned that NNPC followed due process was the officer who reviewed the whole process but after I read about it on the social media.
“I called on him to brief me on the relationship between the due process and what was carried on the social media.
“And he noticed a very big variation in what we did and that of the NNPC with what was on the social media.
“Then we went further to find out how they came about the information they disseminated, we saw that they picked the information somewhere else and used it in a manner that was meant to hurt what NNPC did.
“But, I think we are on top of the situation, we have our documents intact and it is available for scrutiny by anyone who is interested.
“The publication was not true from what I have already said, the publication is not reflective of what happened,” he said.
He urged investors to jettison such irresponsibility exhibited in the report, adding that the government was committed to transparency in all its dealings.
Ahmadu, who affirmed a good working relationship with the NNPC, further commended the corporation on the AKK project, adding that when completed, it would revolutionise the gas supply chain in the country.
On his part, Kyari said that the NNPC would continue to ensure accountability as a public owned organisation.
He said it would continue to follow due process according to the procurement law in the country.
He said: “NNPC is owned by all Nigerians. We have a responsibility to be accountable to these 200million shareholders. It means we must do the right thing, follow all extant rules, procure at least cost and be transparent in our procurement process.
“When the BPP Act was enacted, it wasn’t difficult for NNPC to align with it because many of its provisions were actually practices already entrenched in our system. BPP’s presence was a good inducement for us to do greater things on behalf of Nigerians.
“As a principle, NNPC is now anchored around Transparency and Accountability. We’ve consciously decided to become a partner company for EITI, which means everything we’re doing is open to public scrutiny and must be beneficial to common good”, he stated.
Kyari assured Nigerians that NNPC would not “present anything that is not credible to the BPP. We’ll comply with every provision of the BPP Act in all our procurement activities and ultimately we’ll continue to deliver value to Nigerians”.
On the state of oil pipelines in the country, Kyari said that though there were still incidents of vandalism and criminality, efforts were still on to replace aged ones.
He said that the corporation was targeting two to three years to ensure replacement of some of the pipelines to enhance products supply.
