Minutes of many meetings presided over by Chief Bode George when he was Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian Ports Authority and where questionable contracts were awarded expose his lies of active non-participation in the monumental N85 billion contract fraud that dirtied his tenure.
Chief Bode George, Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority from 1 January 2001 to 14 October 2003 is as glib an operator as they come. For someone who chose his own epitaph after expiring as Military Governor of Ondo State in 1990 as "a Lagos Boy once passed through Ondo State," the emptiness of his moral constitution echoes loudly in that eight-word braggadocio.
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The nearly three-year tenure of George as Board Chairman of the NPA remains a study in questionable contracts. In its 18 April 2005 edition, TheNEWS, working authoritatively on an exhaustive audited report by J.K Randle, a reputable firm of chartered accountants, and another report by a special committee on Review and Verification of Contracts Awarded by the Nigerian Ports Authority from 2001 to 2003, exposed the rot in contract awards at NPA while George ruled as board chairman. The committee, inaugurated by then Minister of Transport, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, was headed by Engineer Mustapha Bukar from the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
While George was still acting out a denial of TheNEWS’ expose, another report submitted in December 2005 by another special committee, set up this time by former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to conduct another round of probe of the controversial NPA contracts, confirmed the Bukar verdict. The chairman of the second committee was Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
And both verdicts were unequivocally damning: All contract-approving authorities in NPA, including the Board and Management of the NPA, Managing Directors, Executive Directors, General Managers, Port Managers and other categories of approving authorities, as well as the appraising officers who served during the period under review should be held responsible for deliberate and flagrant violations of extant government rules and regulations governing the award of contracts. The Board and Management of the NPA and the entire contract-approving authorities in the Authority, as well as appraisal officers during the period under review should be appropriately sanctioned for contract splitting and inflation of contract price in utter disregard of laid-down government rules and regulations.
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The Federal Government sacked the Bode George board and the management team led by Aminu Dabo on 15 October 2003 in the wake of widespread allegations of fraud against them. They were alleged to be profligate through numerous contract scams and criminal mismanagement.
But in a swift charade at distancing himself from the unpatriotic theft of public funds after TheNEWS’ story broke, George called a press conference to say that as mere chairman, he played no direct role in the monumentally scandalous rape of public funds. Nero, George seemed to say, was simply snoring while Rome burnt. However, unrelenting investigators of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have made a breakthrough in the probe. The investigators, according to sources, have stumbled on minutes of meetings that George chaired while he headed the Board. And the minutes have proven incontrovertibly that he was the principal character in the decision to award those questionable contracts, including the huge pies denominated in US dollars, British pounds, Deutschemarks and Euros.
A summary of some of the contract awarded (2001-2003) as scooped by TheNEWS from a report prepared by the EFCC, showed, in naira terms, a contract sum of N228.299 million. This included the supply of 70 KVA Perkins generator given out at N35.3 million. However, the estimate, as discovered through intense investigation and market survey of items or services supplied, should not have been more than N21.66 million. The inflated sum, an official of the NPA who volunteered information calculated, was a mind-blowing N206.639 million.
In hard currencies, the Board and Management at several meetings George chaired approved some contracts worth $22.145 million. EFCC’s findings, however, pegged the worth of the contracts at $18.572 million: the alleged inflated sum was $3.517 million. There were also contract award approvals for a total of £9.41 million but which investigators’ estimated should not have attracted more than £6.66 million: £2.27 million was calculated to have been creamed off. In Euros, the contract totalled 3.177 million, approximately a 100 per cent inflation of the 1.84 million Euros that investigators arrived at. And finally, the Board and Management also approved contract awards totalling 56,220 Deutschemarks, which was 9,370 deutschemarks higher than the 46,850 Deutschemarks that the investigators’ scrutiny unearthed.
At one of the many meetings that George chaired in 2002, he was the leading voice in approving the proposal of Global Resources Company Limited, a deepwater offshore engineering firm, for lease of a vast expanse of land for deepwater offshore and oil support base.
On 18 October 2002, George was at the head of the Board meeting, held in the boardroom at the Authority’s headquarters, that approved numerous contract awards. One was a £180,000 contract to Martinek Ventures Nigeria Limited for supply of six Multi-Beam Echosounders for the Hydrographic Department of the NPA. Others include supply of five Remote Sensing Satellite Imageries to Danjuma Kibo Company Nigeria Limited for N40 million; supply of one 30-ton mobile crane for use at the Port Harcourt Dockyard to Badru Rabiu & Sons Limited at a cost of $265,950; supply of a similar crane for the same tonnage and at the same cost for use at the Warri Dockyard to Belad Ventures Limited; supply of another 30-ton Terex Telescopic mobile crane for use at the Apapa Dockyard to Princadaz Nigeria Limited for a sum of $265,950 and supply of a similar crane for use at the Calabar Port Dockyard to Tbaaz Creation Limited at a cost of $265,950. Mog Holdings got approvals to supply a complete main engine with one gearbox GM 12 V 71 series for use at Apapa Dockyard at a sum of $252,375.75, a P.C. Bonny complete main engine with one gearbox no. GM 12 V92 series for use at Apapa Dockyard at a cost of $284,501 and another complete main engine with gearbox no. GM 12V92 series for Pilot Cutter Bonny also for use at the Apapa Dockyard at a contract sum of $284,501.
On the same day, the Board approved contract awards for supply of power pack, absorbents and seamop dispersants anti-pollution equipment to Cobalt Marine Ltd at a contract sum of £144,000; supply of a multi-purpose hydraulic power pack 10 kw with air blower and inflator, a seamop 3040 with 5.2 kw power pack and a TWH 3004 D mobile hot pressure washer anti-pollution equipment for the Lagos and Warri Ports pollution control, all at a cost of £145,125 to Oscar Marine Limited; supply of another array of anti-pollution equipment to Melsmore Limited at a cost of £211,500; supply of anti-pollution equipment to Seabridge Overseas Limited for a sum of £115,875; and supply of a complete main engine with gearbox GM 12V71 series for P.C. "Umuahia" at its Port Harcourt Dockyard at the contract sum of $252,375.75 to Caverton Marine Ltd. Caverton also bagged contract for supply of a Pilot Cutter "Kiri" complete main engine with gearbox 12V92 series for its Warri Port Dockyard at the contract sum of $284,501.
Deckcrown Limited received the Board’s nod to supply anti-pollution equipment for the Onne Pollution Control programme for a contract sum of £202,500. Also supply of four sets of Ro Clean Mini Wide Spray anti-pollution equipment for the programme was given to Nautica Seatrade Limited at the contract sum of £144,000.
The Board also resolved to award contracts for the purchase of 200 units of Duraline hose and eight extractors for use by the NPA Fire Service Department to Niborep General Procurement at the contract sum of £251,600; supply of 10 units of FRP aerodynamic-shaped mobile in-line inductor, branch pipe and fire hose for the Fire Service Department to Alba Nigeria Enterprises at the contract sum of £264,795; supply of 15 electric hose binding machines for the Fire Service Department to Lawfem Nigeria Limited at the cost of £246,690; and supply of two water tankers for the Fire Service Department at the Headquarters and Container Terminal to Circular Investments Limited at the contract price of £244,400.
The Board also gave Management the go-ahead to recommend to the Ministry of Transport approval of the Federal Executive Council for contract award for the supply of eight new fire engines to Nuel Ojei Limited at the sum of $7.31 million. It approved contract award for the supply of electro-hydraulic plate bending/rolling machine for use at the Calabar Port Dockyard to G.H.P. International Limited for £157,925. The Board also granted approval for contract award for supply of four fairway buoys for the ports of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri and Calabar to Maritech International Limited for £182,736.
While George guided proceedings, the Board also resolved to award contract for the construction of buoy vessel with positioning capacities for the Lagos Harbour Moles project to Alfa Juliet Mangler Ltd for 10.75 million euros.
Another contract award approval for the supply of 25 sabre contour automatic positive pressure, self-contained breathing apparatus also for the Fire Service Department went from the Board to Dockland Maritime Limited for £242,500. It was also approved that Lawrence International Company supply 150 foam compound for Eastern Operations for £377,250.
At another series of meetings of the Board on 5, 6 and 7 June 2003 headed by George, the chairman and his team also gave approvals to award contracts running into millions of naira, dollars, pound sterling and euros. One of the contract approvals went to Intels Nigeria Limited for the 376-metre extension of the Federal Lighter Terminal Jetty, Onne. The contract cost was $41.63 million. Another extension approval was for the Federal Ocean Terminal, Onne, at the sum of $80.52 million. The favoured contractor was the West African Container Terminals Nigeria Ltd. At these meetings, the Board also gave approvals for some other contracts to be awarded.
Within those three years that George led the Authority, it awarded over 29,586 contracts valued about N85 billion. It was the opinion of the committees that all the contracts, if honestly considered, could be compacted into not more than 300. Prices of most of the contracts, the committees found out, were grossly inflated. The huge figure, according to some NPA officials who confided in the Bukar committee, arose from the design of the Authority’s board, management and even politicians to ignore the legitimate channels of doing business and circumvent existing regulations and procedures. They would rather resort to "all kinds of ways" to process contract proposals and determine their awards.
In spite of the fact that the federal government, via a circular number F15775 of 27 June 2001, provided the procedures for and limits of contract awards for ministries and government agencies, the Authority chose to adopt its own procedures and limits. There was also another monthly expenditure limit drawn up by the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization that the Authority was supposed to be complying with, given the peculiarity of its operations. But the Authority would rather introduce its own spending limits.
For instance, although only between N750,000 and N1.5 million was recommended for each port and zonal office as imprest, the indicted Board and Management were releasing between N10 million and N60 million as imprest to them to spend on projects which the committee described as not clearly defined.
To justify how the money went, the Authority’s officers were said to have spent it on frivolous projects and contracts at ridiculous prices and on items that were not required. To skirt approval ceilings, NPA officials split up same items into many contracts but were crafty to ensure prices stayed within approved limits. There was no brake on the amount that could be spent at any period, so long it did not go beyond the ceiling. The huge imprest, they devised, must be exhausted.
The committee uncovered how contracts were awarded to companies purported to be different but were actually owned by the same person. About 80 per cent of the nearly 30,000 contracts awarded within the three-year period actually remained within only about 135 companies owned by a handful of people. Under government’s financial regulations, it is an offence for any officer to deliberately split contract for works, purchase or services. An instance was the supply of back-up spare parts, which was split and awarded to Hesta Industrial and Marine Engineering on 30 January 2001 for 171,596.74 Deutschmarks.
There were also cases of split contracts in materials procurement where over 190 contracts were awarded for the supply of only 66 items. In other two cases where the committee lampooned the Authority for buying what it did not need, ingots worth over N90 million and aluminum electrode worth over N95 million were purchased between January and July 2003.
NPA Board, management and officials were also said to have shunned the official price lists for purchased items to engage in over-invoicing of contracts. In one case, a battery that ordinarily sold for N4000 was awarded to a contractor for N16,000 each. In another, the supply of five drums of lubricant awarded to Clipper Marine Ltd on 26 June 2003 cost a whopping 60,752.04 euros. And in yet another, a contract for the acquisition of 628 pairs of safety boots awarded to Messrs. Map Telecommunications Ltd on 29 April 2003 went for $69,708. All these amounts were considered too prohibitive.
Awards reviewed, the committee stated, were not based on competitive tenders or market surveys, but were done in an arbitrary manner to satisfy the pecuniary greed of certain powerful interests.
In another rape of laid-down procedure, the board and management of the Authority were said to have disregarded capital and recurrent budgetary provisions in the administration of contracts. Nobody bothered to monitor and evaluate budget implementation. As the financial recklessness by the board, management and officials got more intense, the debts of the Authority piled up into billions of naira.
Beyond supply contracts, the committee also analysed contracts it deemed responsible for the endemic leakages that had stalled the growth of the Authority and could affect on-going reforms. These contracts were categorised as on-going maintenance contracts, on-going duplicated contracts with amortised payments, fettering contracts and on-going unfavourable contracts.
Probe of NPA’s operations revealed how it played Santa Claus when it could conveniently conserve funds. The dig unearthed how the Authority awarded three companies, namely Oscar Marine Ltd, Marine Mutual Service Ltd and Intels Consultancy Service, contracts spanning many years to monitor the lifting of crude oil, logistic vessels, movements of offshore drilling rigs and other traffic to and from offshore installations in order to determine pilotage royalty and operational charges to be levied on offshore operational craft.
Consequently 25 per cent of revenue generated from pilotage dues plus $0.00221 per barrel loaded quantity of crude oil was paid to these companies as consultancy fees. Mutual Marine received a monthly payment of $0.00221 per barrel on loaded quantity of crude oil, while Oscar Marine Limited received an increased commission from eight to 10 per cent collectable revenue generation from offshore services, levies and royalties within Nigerian compulsory pilotage districts.
It is curious to hear George claim he was a mere chairman of the NPA Board and was never physically involved in approval of contract awards. These minutes of the meetings that he chaired and where far-reaching approvals on virtually every contract awarded during his tenure were made clearly gave the lie to such claim.
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