N300bn contract awarded to fake firms.

Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday raised the alarm over how the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) awarded contracts worth billions of naira to phantom companies.

A source within the committee said the contracts awarded to some companies without known addresses and offices are worth at least N300 billion.

The Senate FCT committee reportedly discovered that addresses of some of the companies were mere kiosks and that some didn’t have offices they claimed on paper, while others were not domiciled in Abuja.

The Senator Smart Adeyemi-led committee unveiled this during a maiden meeting with 25 FCT contractors on engineering projects in Abuja.

Adeyemi further said that some companies lack traceable addresses. Some gave addresses of kiosks and these companies are handling projects worth billions of naira. Companies with questionable offices, gleaned from documents submitted to the committee are: Diamond Development Nigeria Ltd, COAN W. A. Ltd and Cat Construction Company.

Others include: S&M Nig. Ltd, TE & T Engineering Ltd and New Tiger Head Nig. Ltd.

Daily Sun further gathered that the addresses given by Diamond Development and COAN were discovered to be residential houses, while Cat Const. has no Abuja address. They only gave an address on Victoria Island, Lagos.

A visibly angry Senator Adeyemi declared that the committee would not entertain any lobby from executives of the construction companies.

“God be our witness, we have no interest to malign anybody’s name or interest. Please, get us right; we don’t want a relationship with any of you. We are here to help our country. About six of you here don’t even have any presentation in writing.

Out of the 25 companies summoned to the meeting, only 12 honoured the invitation.

The absence of multi-national construction company, Julius Berger from the meeting angered the committee members, which necessitated an adjournment till Monday.

The committee further mandated the companies to show up next Monday with details of individual indigenisation policy; foreign component charges; public private partnership; Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Corporate Social Responsibility.

On indigenization, Adeyemi explained that the Senate is interested in knowing “the percentage of people working in your companies and the minimum wage being paid because on our oversight tours last year, we heard how some of these construction companies pay their staff N12, 000 per month. That is unacceptable.

The committee said the MoU should spell out the details of FDA’s public, private partnership with the construction companies.

On payment of royalties to the coffers of the Federal Government, the committee demanded payment details on “granite and laterite used so that we know whether you are actually paying the country. We also need to see your Bill of Quantity.

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