Featured

Double Award of Contracts For oil and Gas Metering by NUPRC undermines Nigeria’s National interest-CASER

Published

5 months ago

July 29, 2024

John Ajayi

Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) strongly condemns the recent contracts awarded by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for oil and gas metering. This decision blatantly undermines Nigeria’s national interest and reeks of high-level corruption.

In a statement issued on Monday in Abuja, by the Director, Advocacy CenterCitizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) Frank Tietie, Esq, expressed disappointment that we have learned from the Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobri, of the recent revelation.

According to the statement, CASER has strongly advocated for the implementation of the International Cargo Tracking Note (Advance Cargo Declaration) and have in the past, had course to pursue legal action which stalled an earlier attempted breach of the Public Procurement Act. This measure is crucial to ensure accurate revenues from exports and imports, particularly crude oil exports and petroleum imports, prevent the influx of illegal arms and weapons together with other contrabands, and collate accurate trade statistics for vital National planning purposes.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria, under the past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had already awarded the contract to a Consortium led by Antasser Nigeria Ltd, a global leader in cargo monitoring for ensuring national security and accuracy of revenue remittances to governments across the world.

“However, it is with profound disappointment that we have learned from the Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobri, of the recent revelation that contracts for the engineering audit of upstream measurement equipment and facilities in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Upstream has been awarded to a particular company, PE Energy Limited, for the sum of $21 million (US Dollars), while another contract for the procurement of pre-field development studies for advanced declaration solution Technology (international Cargo Tracking Note) for the Nigerian Oil and Gas Upstream Sector was awarded to P-Lyne Energy Limited for an amount yet to be disclosed.

“Essentially, the above two recent contracts form part of services to be rendered free of charge to the Federal Government in a different contract which has already been awarded to a Consortium led by Antasser Nigeria Ltd, and the services to be provided by these recent awards are a clear duplication of services that are actually meant to be at a total zero cost to the Federal Government of Nigeria under the implementation of the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN).

“It is important to question why the Nigerian Shippers Council and the Honorable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy have not activated the existing contract with the Antasser-led consortium, instead they have allowed for a duplication of the same contract by another agency of the same government.

“This duplication seems to either be motivated by corruption and the self-enrichment of certain individuals in positions of power or the refusal of a cabal benefiting from the status quo.

“The conclusion is easily reached due to the speed and lack of transparency in the processes that led to the recent announcement of the appointment of PE Energy Ltd and P-Lyne Energy Ltd to execute a part of an already awarded contract. These processes defy all public procurement standards, raising more questions than answers at a critical time when our nation is battling with serious economic and security issues.

“This highlights another important reason why the current operations of the Nigerian oil and gas sector need to be carefully scrutinized and completely overhauled, especially in light of the recent crisis involving the NNPC, Mid and Downstream regulatory commission, and the Dangote Refinery.

“In the spirit of transparency and justice for the Nigerian people, CASER is calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call to order, all the relevant authorities, including the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, to immediately stop the unnecessary and unjust duplication of award of the oil and gas metering and cargo monitoring contract to PE Energy Ltd and P-Lyne Energy Ltd, and instead liase with its fellow government agency (The Nigerian Shippers Council) to implement the already existing contract.

The Statement added that: “Having said the above and despite the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, CASER has suspicions related to corruption and favoritism. To get to the bottom of this, it has hereby decided to immediately initiate a freedom of information (FOI) request in order to find out the following:

1. The contract details and when it was advertised.

2. Information about the companies that submitted bids.

3. Details about the winning bidder, including the bidding process used and the reason for their selection.

4. Evidence that this process went through all the required agencies for such a contract.

5. The ultimate beneficiaries of the contract.

“CASER is committed to its mandate of ensuring that the Nigerian government’s institutions and agents work in the interest of the Nigerian people’s well-being and welfare through judicious resource use, compliance with legal standards, eradication of manifest forms of abuse of public office for self-service, and reduction of public sector corruption.

“Therefore, we urge the President to hold to account and sanction all those officials involved in this clear case of corrupt contract maneuvering and ensure that the proper thing is done immediately.”

Share on Facebook

Featured

Dikko And The New Vision Accountability and Development in Sports

Published

1 week ago

December 16, 2024

The Gleamer

Felly Mammah N.

Since the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhaji Shehu Dikko assumed office on the 30th of October, 2024, he has systematically and deliberately been putting in place structures that would result to proper development of sports in Nigeria. Shortly after he was first appointed by President Bola Tinubu as a leading strength of sports, the Director General (DG), Hon. Bukola Olapade was appointed to compliment his efforts.

Many sports analysts believe that the duo of Dikko and Olapade who have been very visible in sports administration will be one of the best combination to take the sports sector to the next level. The DG no doubt, is the head of administration in the Commission, but it should be noted that the financial enablement to manage the affairs of staff and the political might that shops for the finance needed in the running of the sector rest on the Chairman who has the task of liaising with the President directly.

It is also, worthy to note that there is a huge difference between the administration of in the Civil Service as it is controlled by a Permanent Secretary and Directors while the administration of a Commission involves Board Members and experts whose voices and actions are also, game-changing; more so as Commissioners are likely going to take charge of the different zones to proffer solutions for a way forward. The defunct Ministry of Youths and Sports Development which later in 2023 metamorphosed into the Ministry of Sports Development on the assumption of President Bola Tinubu, produced a minister who was not versed in sports administration and as a result, faced mass criticism especially from men of the media.

These men of the pen profession are the torchlight of global sporting activity; they equally keep the history of both sports participation globally as well as the records of athletes’ performances. Their torchlight on past Minister’s and particularly the recent past, have revealed that most of the people who presided over sports administration do not really have any knowledge of the sector before their appointment.

The exit of the immediate past Minister, Sen. John Owan Enoh, refreshingly paved the way for change and this has brought in sports personnels that are expected to place sporting activities in the digital world. Suffice it to also, say that the new management of Sports Commission in parts of her changes is expected to sanitize athletes’ attitude and character for better reflection of children who have seen and communicated with their peers in the Western world.

However, the clarion call for President Tinubu to remove politics in sports may have changed the leadership of sports going by what many sports fans saw in the last outing of both Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris 2024, where a country like Nigeria did not measure up to her potentials.

Despite the poor performance of atheletes during the World Olympics Games, the past immediate past Minister deserves to be commended that during his tenure, the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Games was reawakened as the participation of our Super Eagles brought back hope and jubilation to sports fans including the President and higher authorities. Yes whopping sum of N12 Billion was released two weeks to the Olympics Games and at a time the country was not financially stable. Despite the presidential financial support, the medals presented to the country were crisis and ignorant of both the atheletes, Nigeria Olympic Committee and the Atheletic Federaton to do the needful.

Therefore, it is heart-warming that the President harkened to the appeal of his fellow sports lovers to handpick a known figure in the sports arena to share his wealth of experience that gave him both a name in Sports and positions as the former Chairman of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), Chairman League Management Company (LMC), FIFA match Commissioner of significance, 2nd Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and presently, CAF Committee Member, in addition to his new portfolio as Chairman NSC.

My reference point here is that Alh. Dikko has been given the authority to effect positive change in sports sector, co-ordinate over 40 Sports Federations in the sector, welcome ideas of both sports stakeholders, individuals and veterans of sports that will enable him x-ray the reasons for poor performances in the sector and to chat a way forward for success story. There can never be a new testament without an old testament, thus the reason Alh. Dikko’s doors have remained opened to receive courtesy calls that included the visits by past administrators and foreigners who want to facilitate with whom the cap fits.

Still, in the mood of celebration to formally welcome Alh. Dikko to office was the peculiar power of sports which gathered momentum and the crowd for happy moments as seen in the recent novelty match organized by his friends, associates and sports veterans at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja recently. That gathering clearly announced not just a man who has made a name for himself at a height in global political decision making in sports circle, but a man who has also, given voice to our country’s leagues and international activities.

Sports is a significant sector that comprises emotion, tension, happiness, sadness even death and hope irrespective of the fact that it has the potential to feed many mouths. The sector cannot be compared to other Ministries with delayed bureaucracies and frustration of abilities. While in the civil service the head will rather submerge a growing talent for fear of power thrown, a coach who discovers a talent takes the credit for showcasing a star athelete discovered. Sports has been proven to generate revenue as well as attract public partnership which are all aimed at enhancing podium performance by the athletes.

Shehu Dikko’s business vision and wide participation in football contributed in making him the right candidate to place the sector in its expected level, increase the GDP of the country’s economy and equally be accountable with administrative roadmap for success.

The novelty match organised for him by his sports fans and League managers had the likes of Samson Siasia, Victor Ikpeba, Mutiu Adepoju, Dominic Iorfa, Ahmed Musa in attendance to share their joy with him as they displayed their talent with their foot.
Others that graced the occasion were Super Sports General Manager, Felix Nwogu, former and present Chairmen of House Committee on Sports, NFF President, NOC members and persons from across the globe. That singular act indicated a clear fact that Dikko can actually gather momentum with persons that can support his ideology to deliver as charged by the presidency.

However, the Chairman’s meekness to open his doors to all does not mean weakness neither does it mean that he has not commenced work officially. His work is more of brain tasking because ideas actually rule the world. I will boldly say that he has resumed work with like minds that will not only be on the same page with him but will as well be on success Guinness Book with him.

Felly Mammah N.
Press Officer (NSC).

Share on Facebook