By Chukwudi Obasi, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Assets and Special Duties has directed the management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to provide all documents relating to its current Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) within seven days.
The chairman of the Committee, Ademorin Kuye, made the directive at a public hearing on Thursday at the National Assembly Complex on the need to investigate and assess the performance of the Corporation’s PPP programmes and concessions.
He said the ultimatum became necessary following the failure of the corporation to submit the documents as earlier requested.
He said documents on all agreements related to each asset of PPP and programmes, concessions, and lease agreements with commencement dates should be submitted.
Kuye said that documents proving remittances to the Special Concession Account, an income profile from PPPs-Concession-Lease, and specific achievements recorded by the period under reference should be tendered.
The chairman asked the management to tender documents and evidence of advertisement of PPPs-concession-lease and expression of interests on the leases.
He said the committee is also interested in the document on the challenges, problems, and constraints of mandate implementation and recommendations for improvement
According to him, the forthcoming oversight should include items budgeted for and the level of implementation on all projects.
The chairman also demanded a detailed report from the NRC on a trending video showing a yet-to-be-identified individual carting away assets from one of the country’s train stations.
Kuye said that information available to the committee suggests that such criminal activities were allegedly carried out in Niger, Bauchi, Nasarawa, and Lagos, among other states of the country.
He said the committee would do all that is required to ensure perpetrators and their accomplices are held accountable for their actions.
“Failure to submit these documents and reports on or before December 11, 2024, would force the committee to invoke its constitutional powers against the NRC,” he said.
Responding, the acting Managing Director of NRC, Mr Benjamin Iloanusi, apologised to the committee for not submitting all the required documents, blaming it on miscommunication, saying that they submitted papers by the earlier letter received.
Iloanusi, however, appealed for some time to enable the corporation to submit detailed documents as requested by the committee.
He also urged the committee to share the trending video so that he could carry out an internal investigation and locate the station and the individuals involved.
