Reps probe $470m Abuja CCTV contract

The House of Representatives, onWednesday, set machinery in motion to probe a contract of $470million awarded to a Chinese company, ZTE Corporation for the installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).To this end, the House has mandated its Committees on Public Procurement, Aids, Loans, Debt Management as well as Information Communication Technology to probe the contract.This was sequel to a motion moved by Honourable Hassan Saleh, entitled, "need to investigate $470 million National Security Communications System, NPSCS Abuja contract."Honourable Saleh explained that the project was conceived by the government to enable security agencies to deal with national security challenges and emergency situations.Leading debate on the motion, he raised concern about the quality of materials being used by the Chinese company alleging that they were substandard.He further noted that the poles being used for the CCTV cameras were different from the ones used by the same company in countries like Ghana, Senegal, Morroco and Malaysia.He said,"the National Public Security Communication System is based in a system known as Global Trunking Architecture which provides telecommunication and it could be used to monitor elections and verification of election results as well as disaster management and control."The contractual details of the transaction with the Federal Government is presently shrouded in secrecy which is a clear violation of the doctrine of transparency, accountability and an infringement of the laws of the country," Honourable Saleh said.He also raised alarm that "the executive arm of government is embarking on collection of foreign loans to finance projects without recourse to the National Assembly a few years after the country exited the Paris Club of debtors.According to him,"the Federal Government has made a 15 per cent down payment which amounted to N70.5 million of the total contract sum and has signed a Sovereign Guarantee to the tune of $399.5 million to enable ZTE source for loan from the Chinese government for the project."
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