Stakeholders in the Maritime sector has raised alarm over the recent award of the N20 billion Calabar Port capital dredging contract without procurement challenging the choice of Calabar Channel Management, which never participated in any procurement process for the plum contract.
The last procurement exercise for the capital dredging of Calabar Channel took place in 2010. Six companies, Jan De Nul, Dredging International, Westminster Dredging, China Harbour Engineering, Lagos Channel Management (LCM) and Van Oord – participated after scaling the pre-qualification hurdle.
But the exercise was later nullified and a re-procurement ordered following an attempt by the Ministry of Transport and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to manipulate the process in favour of LCM.
Calabar Channel Management, which is at the centre of the current controversy, was incorporated after this episode. It is a partnership between NPA and Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited, which allegedly, belongs to a People Democratic Party (PDP) Senator representing Imo State.
Available records show that Niger Global owns 46.7 per cent of the Joint Venture while NPA owns 53.3 percent.
The re-tender organized recently for the six companies that participated in the 2010 bid witnessed the inclusion of Calabar Channel Management. Even then, the bid never saw the light of the day.
Soon after the commencement of the process, NPA called off the exercise citing Section 28 of the Procurement Act. That section of the Act stipulates that “a procuring entity may: (a) reject all bids at any time prior to the acceptance of a bid, without incurring thereby any liability to the bidder and (b) cancel the procurement proceedings in the public interest, without incurring any liability to the bidders.
But to the aggrieved maritime stakeholders, the rejection of the bids was a ploy to circumvent the procurement process and deliver the contract to a party faithful who, according to them, has been in the forefront of the campaign for President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid.
They claim that soon after the procurement process was truncated, Transport Minister Idris Umar announced to visiting traditional rulers from the South-South and South-East that the contract had been awarded to Calabar Channel Management.
The decision to discontinue with the re-procurement process was conveyed to contending bidders about three weeks ago through a letter signed on behalf of NPA’s Managing Director by the General Manager (Procurement), Mr T. S. Izukun.
The letter, entitled Re: Re- Procurement of Capital Dredging of Calabar Port Access Channel: Cancellation of Bidding Process, reads: “This is to convey to you government’s decision to discontinue with the procurement process of the above-mentioned project.
“The cancellation is pursuant to Section 28 of the Public Procurement Act 2007. However, you are please requested to forward your account details to the Secretary of the Tenders Board to facilitate the refund of the money paid for the bidding documents. Any inconveniences are highly regretted”.
Going by the account of the aggrieved parties, it was through a similar ruse and a purported ‘Presidential Approval’ that the maintenance dredging of the Calabar Port went to the same company last year. The implication of this is that Calabar Channel Management is now entrusted with both the capital and maintenance dredging of the Calabar channel estimated to cost several billions of Naira.
The offer of the maintenance dredging of the channel to the firm was also vehemently opposed. The current chairman of PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, fired the opening salvo in a five-page petition to the Transport minister.
In the petition, Anenih observed that Calabar Channel Management neither participated in the bid process for Calabar channel nor was its competence and capabilities assessed as was the case of the other firms jostling for the same contract.
Anenih also called the minister’s attention to the fact that the agreement between NPA and Niger Global, which culminated in the formation of Calabar Channel Management, was skewed in favour of the senator’s company that even amendments recommended by the Ministry of Justice were not reflected in the final agreement.
His words: “the consortium has no reference whatsoever of previous jobs done. They were completely alien to the Calabar channel project and did not even take part in the bids of 2010 and the later procurement process”.
“The consortium was not prequalified and did not pass through the selection process like other companies. It, therefore, follows that the Presidential Approval for the appointment of the consortium led by Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited to enter into a joint venture with NPA which culminated in the agreement to form Calabar Channel was obtained without following due process.”
This is the fourth controversial attempt at making Calabar River navigable. Two of them occurred in the current dispensation
