The Public Accounts Committee of the Nigerian Senate has begun investigation into the National Identity Management Commission’s non-compliance with the Public Procurement Act in the award of N229m contract.
Headed by Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South), the committee based its inquest on the Auditor General of the Federation’s 2017 report, currently being considered by the lawmakers.
Audit observed that capital payment vouchers dated October 25, 2017 for N229.7m showed that NIMC procured 22 units of HP blade servers for Morpho BSS upgrade.
It noted, “The items were supplied, but there was no evidence of Ministerial Tender’s Board approval; thus, negating the mandatory open competitive bidding. Public advertisement in at least two national dailies, as required by the Financial Regulation 2907 (1) and section 251(ii) of the Public Procurement Act, was absent.
“There was an initial payment of N103.4m through payment voucher number NIMC/01/016 CA/18 dated 19/01/18, representing 45 per cent of the contract sum, as against 15 per cent mobilisation fee. Subsequent payments were not also backed by an interim performance certificate as required by Section 35(2) of the public procurement Act 2007.”
According to the committee, this is an indication of weakness in NIMC’s internal control system, which could lead to poor value for money and possibility of misapplication and misappropriation of funds.
Financial Street gathered from the memo that no response was received from NIMC management at the time of the report; hence the Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Aliyu Aziz, is required to refund N229m.
Aziz, however, said the contract fell within the threshold of NIMC tender’s board because it was classified under works.
The servers, he added, had been supplied before the payment of the initial 45 per cent, which represent part-payment and not mobilisation due to lack of funds.
He explained to the committee that the amount was meant to procure 22 blade servers to accommodate 20 million enrolment records, adding that the contract, awarded in 2012, was a continuation of procurement of enterprise servers and storage solution and equipment.
NIMC had registered 57 million Nigerians and 90 servers are needed to register 100 million Nigerians, and the commission will submit a N25bn proposal to buy more servers, he disclosed.
However, the committee kicked against continuing a 2012 procurement process in 2017.
