Nigeria’s Minister of Works, David Umahi, has defended the award of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway to Hitech Construction, saying the corporate was chosen by way of direct procurement permitted by regulation due to its specialised expertise in tackling coastal engineering challenges.
Umahi additionally rejected claims that President Bola Tinubu’s son, Seyi Tinubu, sits on Hitech’s board, amid longstanding questions in regards to the relationship between the President’s household and firms related to the Chagoury Group.
Speaking in an unique interview with ARISE News, Umahi confirmed that there was no public commercial or open aggressive bidding for the freeway, however insisted the procurement technique was lawful.
When challenged if there was commercial or public bidding, Umahi retorted, “But there was direct procurement. It’s within the law.”
Asked particularly whether or not Seyi Tinubu was on Hitech’s board, Umahi responded: “He’s not.”
The minister mentioned the federal government had examined Hitech’s board as a part of the pre-qualification course of.
“I’ve heard people that say, ‘Oh, Seyi Tinubu is on the board of Hitech.’ We have the board of Hitech, because before we did pre-qualification,” he mentioned.
Umahi defined that federal procurement guidelines present completely different routes for awarding contracts, together with open tendering, restrictive tendering and direct procurement, with emergency procurement out there beneath explicit circumstances.
“There are three kinds of procurement that are allowed,” he mentioned. “There is a fourth one, which is emergency procurement.”
Explaining the excellence, Umahi mentioned open procurement entails public commercial, whereas restrictive tendering permits authorities to ask corporations thought of to have the mandatory experience to pre-qualify and bid.
“And so the third one is direct procurement,” he mentioned. “Direct procurement is where there are no competitive bids. But it’s a specialised kind of procurement.”
Umahi mentioned the choice to make use of that technique for Hitech was pushed by the engineering challenges anticipated alongside the shoreline, notably the menace posed by Atlantic Ocean surges.
“Our job was to construct road along the coast — coastal highway — and we knew that we were going to be confronted with the ocean surge,” he mentioned.
The minister cited the historic menace of coastal erosion to Victoria Island and the eventual growth of Eko Atlantic as proof of Hitech’s skill to undertake specialised coastal engineering.
Umahi recalled that repeated interventions by expatriate contractors had did not completely resolve the menace to Victoria Island earlier than Hitech turned concerned.
“All over the years, the Federal Government would engage expatriates from Belgium, from France and all over the country,” he mentioned. “Each time the flood came, there would be that kind of intervention. But it could not solve the problem of the VI.”
He mentioned Hitech initially resisted endeavor the coastal safety work due to the monetary and technical dangers concerned.
“The President called Hitech and said, ‘Please, can you invest to do this, to tame the Atlantic Ocean?’ They said, ‘No. You’re going to liquidate us. We won’t be able to do it.’”
Umahi mentioned the corporate finally developed an answer involving large concrete constructions and geotextile supplies to carry again the Atlantic.
“They were almost liquidated until they came up with that method,” he mentioned, referring to the coastal safety system. “And today we have a beauty to behold, the Eko Atlantic.”
According to Umahi, that monitor document turned central to the federal government’s justification for proposing Hitech for the Coastal Highway.
“So when we knew that we were going to be confronted with this, we were going to look for that kind of technical expertise,” he mentioned. “And that’s why we sent the name of Hitech.”
He mentioned the federal government introduced Hitech’s Eko Atlantic work as proof of its efficiency, technical capability and functionality to the Bureau of Public Procurement.
“They put the Eko Atlantic as the attraction and the evidence of performance and capacity and capability to the BPP,” Umahi mentioned.
The BPP, he mentioned, thought of the proposal earlier than permitting the federal government to proceed with direct procurement on a section-by-section foundation.
“BPP looked at it and said, ‘Yes, but procure this thing in sections,’” he mentioned.
Umahi mentioned the federal government subsequently obtained a Certificate of No Objection earlier than taking the procurement to the Federal Executive Council for approval.
“Federal Executive Council approved: go ahead, direct procurement, but procure it in sections,” he mentioned.
Pressed on whether or not this amounted to affirmation that there had been no public bidding for the venture, Umahi initially objected to the framing, insisting that the central query needs to be whether or not the procurement complied with Nigerian regulation.
“You should ask me whether we conformed to the law of the Federal Government,” he mentioned.
When the interviewer ARIISE News Anchor Ojy Okpe reiterated that there had been no commercial or public bidding, Umahi in the end confirmed the procurement technique, he mentioned. “It’s within the law.”
Demola Ojo
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