The house of representatives committee on public accounts
has asked the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Federal Inland Revenue
Service (FIRS) to provide the details of the firms involved in the N18 billion
bush-clearing contracts of the ministry of agriculture.
Oluwole Oke, chairman of the committee, issued the directive
at an investigative hearing on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the committee had said the contracts were
awarded to the companies for bush clearing, land preparation and rehabilitation
of soil and plant laboratories.
“During the lockdown of the country as a result of COVID-19,
some companies took contracts worth about N18 billion for bush clearing from
the federal ministry of agriculture for land preparation, rehabilitation of
soil plant lab and others. We cannot shave their head in their absence,” Oke
had said.
“We have invited the ministry of agriculture and they have
made a submission. But some of our members whose constituencies these projects
were supposed to be domiciled doubted the existence of these projects and for
fair hearing, we have invited the companies that got the contract for them to
come and tell this committee where and when the jobs were executed.”
At its sitting on Wednesday, Oke asked the clerk of the
committee to write the registrar of CAC and executive chairman of FIRS to
supply the lawmakers with information and documents about the firms involved in
the contracts.
“We are not concerned about who won the contracts, what we
are after is to determine the value for money paid out and the sites of the
projects. We will carry that mission to the letter,” the chairman of the
committee said.
“The clerk should also write the Federal Inland Revenue
Services (FIRS) to furnish the committee with the financial status of the
companies,” he added.
The committee is probing queries raised by the office of the
auditor-general of the federation in the 2019 report on ministries, departments
and agencies (MDAs).
But the ministry of agriculture has denied awarding the
contracts at the sum of N18 billion.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Joel Oruche, director of
information in the ministry of agriculture, said the ministry only carried out
bush clearing and land preparation of 3,200 hectares in eight states — Osun,
Ekiti, Edo, Cross River, Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau and Ogun.
According to NAN, Oruche said the bush clearing contract was
awarded by the respective state governments at a total cost of N2.5 billion.
He said other projects executed by the ministry during the
COVID–19 period that totalled the sum of N18 billion include the construction
of rural roads in the six geo-political zones.
According to him, other projects are soil sampling and
mapping, farmers registration, rehabilitation and equipping of four national
soil laboratories in Umudike, Ibadan, Kaduna and Abuja.
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