A committee set up by the Federal Government to probe contracts awarded by the Office of the National Security Adviser from 2011 to 2015 has indicted more than 300 companies and prominent citizens, including serving and retired officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stated this in a statement on Thursday.
Shehu explained that the committee was different from the committee investigating the Defence Arms and Equipment Procurement.
He said over N7bn had been recovered so far from the indicted companies and individuals.
Shehu, however, did not give the breakdown of how much each company or individual returned.
He said N41bn was to be returned by the indicted companies, adding that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had been ordered to determine whether another N75bn should be recovered from some of the companies for unexecuted or partially-executed contracts.
According to him, the committee further established that one of the indicted companies, Societe D’Equipment International, was overpaid to the tune of 7.9m Euros and $7.09m (about N3.15bn).
He added that the committee discovered that there was a total disregard for salient provisions of the Public Procurement Act in the award of contracts by ONSA.
Shehu said, “Several contractors were apparently overpaid, while others were given full upfront payments contrary to their contract terms and agreements in force.
“There was also evidence of payments to individuals and companies by ONSA without any contractual agreement or evidence of jobs executed.
“The committee further discovered that some companies failed to meet up with their tax obligations for contracts executed.
“The committee has made attempts and succeeded in recovering some of the funds from these individuals and organisations amounting to N3,537,549,223.04; $8m and houses worth N512m from 32 companies.
“The committee also established that some individuals and companies received monies without evidence of contractual agreements or jobs done. The amount received by these individuals was N7,104,925,000.00.
“In a similar vein, the committee revealed that some companies that failed to execute contracts or did so partially were to return money to the government. The total amount to be is N19,896,539,125.20 only, $43,771,433.73 and two houses in Abuja worth N260,000,000.00.
“The committee also revealed that 15 companies were awarded contracts that require further investigation to ascertain the status of their contracts. The total value of the contracts awarded in this category was N11,726,571,161.00, $202,136,890.00 and €4,114,752.96.”
The presidential spokesperson stated that companies that failed to execute contracts or did so partially included Daar Investment and Holdings Limited; Dalhatu Investment Limited; Destra Investment Limited; NAF Holding Company Limited; BCN Nigeria Limited; Elizade Nigeria Limited; Hadassa Investment and Security; RCN Networks Limited; Julius Berger; and Stallion Motors Limited.
These companies, he said, had been asked to return undisclosed amount of money.
The presidential spokesman also listed some of the individuals and companies that were indicted for receiving payments without contractual agreements to include the former Principal General Staff Officer at the ONSA and still a serving military officer, Brig. Gen. A.S. Mormoni-Bashir; Dr. Yakubu Sanky; a Director in the ONSA, Amb. Layiwola Laseinde; a former NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.); Special Adviser to Dasuki, Col. Bello Fadile (retd.); a former Accountant- General of the Federation, Mr. Otunla Jonah Niyi; and a former Minister of State for Finance, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda.
Others are Dr. Tunji Olagunju, Miss Oluwatoyin Oluwagbayi, Maipata Mohammed Abubakar,
Mohammed Suleiman, Ibrahim Abdullahi, Alhaji Aliyu Usman and 18 other officers that served in the ONSA.
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