2010 Fiscal Year: N909.14b; $1.24b; 3.4m; '184.6mTHE Federal Executive Council (FEC) awarded hundreds of contracts in the 2010 Fiscal Year (FY) amounting to N909,139,921,770.17; $1,236,800,286.54; '184,552,640.87; and 3,395,173.54The contract approvals, which have almost turned a weekly routine on Wednesdays, are for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).The projects are mainly spread across the six geopolitical zones, except for works carried out by special interventionist agencies, such as the Ministry of the Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).However, while a few of these contracts had actually been awarded and money released for their implementation; most of them are on paper, still undergoing bidding processes in the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and/or vetting and clearance in the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).A major flaw in the award of these contracts is duplication, with particular contracts appearing in several MDAs.For instance, the 'Award of contract for the provision of Engineering Infrastructure to Katampe District of the FCT through Public Private Partnership at N61,194,747,645, approved on 26/5/10 and delivery within five years, also appeared under the Ministry of Agriculture.Indeed, two other contracts for the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT) were also duplicated under the Agriculture Ministry. They are:' Award of contract for the stage II of the Production of Digital Photography and Digital Maps of FCT/Augmentation for the Capacity Building Component (Messrs Swedesurvey AB), MFCT at N355,393,546.20, '1,960,035 at N181.32 to '.' Award of contract for the procurement of 90 Nos. Peugeot 407 Executive Extra for the Nigeria Police Force, to be supplied by Messrs Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN Ltd), under the MFCT at N581,805,000.Obviously, it was these three projects that ballooned the contract amounts of the Ministry of Agriculture to '8,070,000 and N157,272,445,891.20.Similarly, watchers of the FEC, BPE and BPP activities wonder what the Ministry of Women Affairs doing with a 'contract for the provision of Project Management Services for Abuja Rail Mass Transit Project (Lots 1 & 3) at N1,289,958,088, and delivery in 48 months.'Besides, some MDAs tend to enjoy contract awarded in foreign currencies. These include the Ministries of Agriculture, Aviation, Commerce, Defence, Finance, Power, Transport; the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government and the Debt Management Office.'Details in Sunday Magazine
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