Secrets Reporters
The National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), under the leadership of Bala Wunti, has come under the investigative eyes of SecretsReporters with a ₦647.43 million contract awarded without evidence of due process and a separate US$3.9 million reimbursable payment made without evidence of the required authorisation and expenditure records.
The findings followed a review of payments and procurement records relating to the construction and installation of gas pipelines under the rehabilitation and upgrade of the Sapele, Oben, Delta IV and Ajaokuta metering stations, known as the SODA projects.
A review of the ₦647,434,952.03 payment to International Energy Services Limited for the gas pipeline construction and installation works found that records showing how contractors were invited to submit quotations and how the contractor was selected before the award were not available. Engineering reports from the NGIC Project Unit relating to procurement deliverables were not sighted.
Other procurement records not attached to the payment vouchers included prequalification documents, such as registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), three-year tax clearance certificates, registration or clearance from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), and evidence of compliance with the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and Pension Commission (PenCom) requirements.
It was learnt that a team subsequently visited the NGIC office in Warri, Delta State, where officers of the project unit stated that the requested documents did not exist.
The absence of the quotation, contractor selection and prequalification records meant that the review could not establish from the documents reviewed the process through which the contractor was selected and the contract awarded. The missing engineering reports also left the procurement deliverables without the supporting project documentation requested by the audit.
A separate review of Payment Voucher No. 1500004572 found that US$3.9 million was paid to a contractor as a reimbursable sum without evidence of the authorisation required under the agreement.
Article 4.1 of the agreement between NNPC (FES) and the contractor provides that reimbursable sums shall be utilised upon authorisation by the supervisor and that the contractor shall not make prior commitments for expenses to be covered by the reimbursable sum unless duly authorised by the supervisor.
However, there was no evidence in the NNPC file of the required supervisor’s authorisation or appraisal of the work done before the reimbursable sum was accessed.
Moreover, there was no report on the security consultancy intended to establish the purpose for which the provision was to be used, including affairs, security and capacity-building activities specified under Article 4.1 of the agreement between NNPC, FES and IDSL.
Consequently, the records did not contain evidence of the contractual authorisation, work appraisal or security consultancy report required to support the US$3.9 million reimbursable payment.
