A company that deals solely in the Petroleum Products Sales and Distribution was awarded construction of a town hall in Plateau state as a constituency project at an alleged sum of N40 million.
In a constituency project that was facilitated by Mr. Dachung Bagos, a federal lawmaker in the House of Representatives from Plateau State, the Federal College of Veterinary and Medicine Laboratory Technology awarded the construction of a community town hall to a Petroleum Products Sales and Distribution Company.
Under the deal, Mr. Bagos, using the Federal College of Veterinary and Medicine Laboratory Technology nominated the constituency project. A project that is located at Fobur community in Jos-south/Jos East Federal Constituency of Plateau State.
To perfect the deal, the Nigerian government allocated NN40 million in its budget to the project, and a huge percentage of the sum is alleged to have been allocated.
The contract that was awarded to Blue Diamond Oil and Gas Limited has since been completed. This is even as Tracka, a public accountability Organization that was at the project location, says it was poorly constructed and yet to be put into use.
It is not, however, clear the kind of procurement process the Federal College of Veterinary and Medicine Laboratory Technology carried out that led to the selection of Petroleum Products Sales and Distribution Company for a contract to build a house.
This is even as section 58 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 makes it offence liable to five or 10 years imprisonment for awarding contracts without due process and in line with the law.
And, also, section 38 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 makes it an offence for contracts that are not awarded in compliance with procurement rules.
Constituency projects are Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIP) nominated by the lawmakers and recommended to the executive to be included in the budget. They are often projects sited in the rural communities to improve their living condition through the provision of local infrastructures and rural empowerment programmes.
Nigerian experience has shown that Lawmakers do not execute constituency projects as they appear in the national budget, and getting them to account for monies approved for such intervention projects is always difficult.
And, often, community residents are not aware such monies have been given to their lawmakers, and that makes accountability very difficult.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Federal College of Veterinary and Medicine Laboratory Technology and Mr. Bagos for official responses.