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LequteMan
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Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has gotten the Federal Executive Council's approval the controversial $2.7 billion (about N827 billion) gas pipeline contract he accused the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru, of awarding two months ago.
The contract is the installation of the new Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano, AKK, gas pipelines under a public-private partnership basis. Kachiku had previously accused Baru of awarding the contract to a Chinese firm without following due process.
On Wednesday, he presented the contract to the FEC for approval. He said he did this so as to correct the irregularity he pointed out in his leaked memo to the President.
“What I complained about was about due process not being following in the initial approvals, obtained without seeking my concurrence or input.
“The due process is that before contracts go to FEC, they should go first to the Board of the company, in this case NNPC, to give everyone the opportunity to make their inputs,’ he explained.
“What I did was an inverse approval process, which is post-the fact, by taking it to the Board before the FEC. After the NNPC Tenders Board, the right thing to do should be for the contracts to go to the minister, who should even have an input before the Tenders Board finishes its work.
“But because the contract value exceeds the $20 million threshold, the minister has the obligation to take it back to the other Board members for them to review it. Whatever is their opinion would be included in the recommendation by the minister to the President, to guide his decision.
“Based on the President’s input as the full Minister, then the contract would go to FEC. That is the due process of how things should be done,” he said.
The contract is the installation of the new Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano, AKK, gas pipelines under a public-private partnership basis. Kachiku had previously accused Baru of awarding the contract to a Chinese firm without following due process.
On Wednesday, he presented the contract to the FEC for approval. He said he did this so as to correct the irregularity he pointed out in his leaked memo to the President.
“What I complained about was about due process not being following in the initial approvals, obtained without seeking my concurrence or input.
“The due process is that before contracts go to FEC, they should go first to the Board of the company, in this case NNPC, to give everyone the opportunity to make their inputs,’ he explained.
“What I did was an inverse approval process, which is post-the fact, by taking it to the Board before the FEC. After the NNPC Tenders Board, the right thing to do should be for the contracts to go to the minister, who should even have an input before the Tenders Board finishes its work.
“But because the contract value exceeds the $20 million threshold, the minister has the obligation to take it back to the other Board members for them to review it. Whatever is their opinion would be included in the recommendation by the minister to the President, to guide his decision.
“Based on the President’s input as the full Minister, then the contract would go to FEC. That is the due process of how things should be done,” he said.
