Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Public
Petitions have threatened to get Minister of Sports, Mr Solomon Dalung arrested
over alleged N30million bribery scam.
Dalung was said to have refused to appear before the
committee after seven invitations were communicated to him.
The committee chaired by Rep Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, PDP, Abia
also summoned the ministry’s Permanent Secretary and Director of Procurement to
appear alongside the minister to explain their roles over alleged bribery scam
involving a contractor.
The petitioner, Kingdom Human Rights Foundation, in a letter
dated January 1, 2017 entitled: “Public Petition Against Minister of Sports,
Permanent Secretary, Director of Procurement for Corruption, Bribery and
Criminal Breach of Contract, Pursuant To Section 88(1) had alleged that: “Our
client Solbec Ltd was awarded a contract, via a contract award letter dated 27
November 2013 by the then Ministry of Youth Development(Now Federal Minstry of
Sports) for the construction of a youth development centre at Ojongbodu, Oyo
state.
“The total contract sum is N182,942,047.05 and the contract
was duly awarded after a thorough award procurement scrutiny and selection
process in line with the Procurement Act and contract agreement.
“Several attempts were made to get the 15 percent
mobilisation fee but request was turned down and the contractor was advised to
take a loan facility and Skye Bank obliged him N20m. “On Sept 18, 2014 when the
project got to DPC level, a job valuation of N30,159,527 was raised for payment
after it was measured, investigated and verified.
“Regrettably, few days after on-site evaluation the Minister
of Youth, the Permanent Secretary and Director of Procurement in the ministry
acting through some senior staff in the department of procurement corruptly
demanded an advanced payment of the 20 percent of the total valuated sum of
N30,159,527(kickback) to enable them approve job already executed. The
petitioner further claimed that due to their client’s inability to pay the
kickback, the ministry connived with Bureau for Public Procurement to issue a
complaint purporting same to be from unidentified lowest responsive bidder
while Solbec was the lowest responsive bidder.
“As a result of their corrupt interest in the contract, the
ministry later informed us that the valuated N30,159,527 due for payment to our
client would be paid to the purported new contractor(Grandeur Engineering
Services Ltd).
“Consequently, in October, 2015, the ministry paid
N30,159,52z total valuated sum due to our client to Grandeur Engineering
Services Ltd through GT Bank account N0 0022398117.”
At the committee’s last hearing, the chairman apparently
frustrated after sending several letters to the minister ordered his clerk to
prepare a Bench Warrant for Dalung and two others.
However, his colleagues prevailed on him to give the
minister another grace till May 30 to defend the allegations levelled against
him by the contractor.
By Wale Odunsi
