The Director General of the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP, Mr Emeka Eze yesterday said that the $470 million contract awarded by the late President Musa Yar’Adua administration for the procurement and installation of Close Circuit Television, CCTV, in Lagos and Abuja was illegal as it did not follow due process.
Eze made the disclosure at an investigative hearing by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee looking into the circumstances of the award of the contract and the apparent failure of ZTE Corporation to complete the contract.
He said that the project was not known to the BPP and therefore did not receive a certificate of no objection.
“The contract for the installation of CCTV Cameras in Abuja and Lagos under the National Public Security Communication System project was not processed at the Bureau of Public Procurement prior to award. In other words, the project was not issued a due process certificate of no objection by the BPP.
“Considering the purported cost of contract in US$470 million, the contract ought to have been accompanied with a certificate of no objection issued by the BPP,” he said.
However, a former Director General of NigComSat, Ahmed Rufa’i told the committee that the contract was awarded through a presidential approval.
He that projects that border on national security do not have to pass through the BPP as the president has discretionary powers to approve them.
Chinese telecommunications company, ZTE, in its submission, told the committee that it fully executed the project tagged National Public Security Communication System, NPSCS.
Managing Director of ZTE Nigeria, Mr. Had Fuqiang, said that the firm completed and delivered one of the world’s best Video Surveillance Systems, VSS, to the Federal Government.
“Contrary to public perception, the project was not to merely install cameras but one conceived to deploy comprehensive, reliable, modern and robust National Public Security Communications System, NPSCS," he said.
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