Contractor vanishes after collecting N1.3bn mobilisation for CCB project
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on Tuesday asked anti-graft agencies to probe a contractor who abandoned a project since 2015 after collecting N1.5bn mobilisation fee.
The contractor was said to have abandoned the construction of the headquarters of the Code of Conduct Bureau in Abuja which is still at foundation level after four years.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, who presided over the joint session, stated this when the CCB, Code of Conduct Tribunal and the Public Complaints Commission, appeared at the federal parliament to defend their 2020 budgets.
He wondered why neither the management of the CCB nor any other agency of government had raised the alarm on the abandoned project.
He said, “The Federal Government paid N1.5bn 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.”
Akinyelure said, “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”
The lawmakers described as alarming the revelation by the CCB Chairman, Mohammed Issa; and the Chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar, that they had not received any capital vote since 2018.
They unanimously agreed that the three anti-graft agencies should enjoy 100 per cent funding from the federation account.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Akinyelure said, “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” Punch
