The suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF,Mr. Babachir Lawal has been indicted for mismanagement by the Nigerian Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North-East. The Senate panel also asked the relevant agencies to prosecute Mr. Lawal for allegedly awarding contracts worth N500m, through the Presidential Initiative on North-East, a rehabilitation programme under his office, to a company in which he had interests.
This was part of the recommendations in thePanel’s final report, laid before the Senate by its Chairman Senator Shehu Sani, at Tuesday’s plenary.
It was recommended in the report that “all resources that have been misapplied or stolen by public officials should be retrieved and anybody found culpable of contravening any of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and the Federal Government Financial Rules and Regulations, pertaining to the award of these contracts, should be duly prosecuted by the relevant authorities.
“That the banks transactions of Rholavision Engineering Limited and the confirmation by (the) Central Bank of Nigeria that the Bank Verification Number of Babachir David Lawal is still the signatory to Rholavision Engineering Limited accounts and 13 other accounts, some with different names. The committee is of the opinion that Babachir David Lawal has contravened the provision of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (As amended); the Public Procurement Act 2007 and breach the Oaths of Office as Secretary to the Government of the Federation and should be prosecuted by the relevant authorities; and
“That the committee also recommends further investigation by relevant agencies of government on why contract-benefitting companies paid over N500m into Rholavision Engineering Limited, a company in which Babachir David Lawal has interest.”
The panel also stated that since all the contracts awarded by PINE were done under the principle of emergency situation, PINE should forward a detailed report of all contracts awarded by it to the Bureau of Public Procurement in accordance with Section 43 (iv) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
It added that since it was observed that there was no bill of quantities on most of the contracts awarded by PINE under the emergency situation, the BPP should undertake a revaluation of all such contracts to recover any proceeds from over-inflated contracts.
The panel also asked relevant agencies should ensure that contracts, partially executed but fully paid for, are completed by the contractors or be asked to refund the equivalent money of outstanding jobs to the government treasury.
Recall that the Senate had earlier called for Lawal’s resignation, probe and prosecution based on the interim report by the committee, which was released on December 14, 2016.
This latest development may have dealt a blow to Lawal’s hopes of reinstatement as SGF. He was suspended by his principal, President muhammadu Buhari pending the outcome of the probe into the grass-cutting allegations against him by a panel headed by Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
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