By Kassim Omomia
The new Chairman of the Economic and Financial Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, may begin his work as the new helmsman at the anti graft agency with a referral from the House of Representatives committee on public Procurement, to prosecute the acting director general of the Product Development Institute(PRODA), Dr. Fabian Okonkwo.

Dr Okonkwo will face the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other graft agencies for prosecution, Chairman of the committee, Hon. Nasir Ali Ahmed, disclosed at the close of the investigations into alleged procurement deception and staff victimisation at the institute , located in Enugu.

The House Committee found Okonkwo guilty of violating the public procurement act, 2007 by “cancelling duly approved contracts and rewarding them illegally.

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“We will use you as an example. I don’t think any other DG has been punished before. I can assure you that every other penalty that is in the procurement act, you will face it.

“You can’t sit in your office and decide on who gets what. I am happy that the board of PRODA is here andb listening to the root that’s happening at the Institute.

“So, we will refer this case to the EFCC, ICPC and the NFIU. There was a transparent process, you came in and said to hell with BPP and decided to do what you want. I can assure you that whatever we do as a parliament, Mr. President and Nigerians are behind us”, he stated.

Making his submission today , the director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) represented by Engr. Babatunde Kuye, explained that the acting DG, violated the public procurement act, 2007 by cancelling contracts already aawarded without recourse to due process.

Kuye said, “PRODA has no right under the law to cancel any ongoing procurement process. Section 54 is very clear on this. PRODA can make case for cancellation but don’t have the power to cancel any contract ”

According to him, after the approval of the procurement process, the BPP received petitions from.contractors who accused the management of PRODA of threats and attempts to extort N10 million from them.

He explained that since the allegations contained in some petitions were criminal in nature, the BPP directed PRODA to suspend work on the contracts.

“The approval we gave PRODA was certificate of no objection. If erroneously cancellations are made of the contracts, it is null and void. If truly there were jobs awarded based on cancellations, those jobs are null and void” he said

Demanded by the committee, if he had approval from the BPP before cancelling the contracts and awarding fresh ones, the acting director general, Dr. Okonkwo said he had written to the BPP communicating illegalities in the contracts.

Speaking at the session, the embattled chairman who was asked to step aside, Comrade Daniel Onjeh, said they acted in national interest in stopping the contracts.

He, however, carpeted the acting DG of misleading the board by claiming that he had informed BPP and got approval to cancel the contracts.

Section 28 of the procurement act provides for cancellation where it is established that there were some irregularities in the contract awards or procurement process” Onjeh informed the panel.