… Says Transport Ministry signed N33bn contract without clear cut terms
THE House of Representatives said, on Monday, that representatives of the Federal Government did not agree on terms of loan repayments before signing the documents for the development of Nigeria’s Rail sector.
The lawmakers also alleged that the Ministry of Transportation signed a commercial contract worth $33 billion without distinct financial arrangement, noting that most of the contract agreements did not also have local content clauses.
The Chairman, House Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements, Ossai Nicholas Ossai, disclosed this during the resumed hearing on the review of bilateral loan and commercial contract agreements by Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, however, refuted the allegations, saying that the only contracts he was aware of were the $1.6 billion loan for the Lagos/Ibadan rail project, signed by the Buhari government; and the about $800 million loan under the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
While condemning criticisms relating to the probe, Ossai said, “We have noted comments on the facts that the National Assembly approved these loans, so why turn around to probe it now? Well, I remember stating in our last meeting here, that executive scrutiny and oversight by the legislature on government policies, programmes and projects can be done at the beginning, during implementation and at the end of implementation.
“From our experience, the MDAs sign these commercial agreements in billions of dollars, then go to the President and Federal Executive Council for approval to execute, including securing loan facilities through the Ministry of Finance and Debt Management Office. They then proceed to negotiate the terms of these loans before coming back to Mr. President who then writes the National Assembly asking for approval for billions of dollars to do projects without attaching the negotiated loan and commercial contracts agreement details.”
He noted, “This approach is the reason we have government representatives signing empty pages of loan agreements repayment schedule and other key documents required for the loan agreements to become effective. We have commercial contracts signed in US dollars, while the loan agreements for the execution of the same contracts were signed in Chinese Yuan currency in the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy/Galaxy Backbone Limited.
“We have also seen references made in the commercial contracts regarding BOQs but none of the commercial contract agreements submitted to us, especially by the Ministry of Transport, has a single BOQ attachment.”
