Trial of failed contractors
THE Federal Government the other day, gave indication that it would soon begin the prosecution of highly placed persons who abandoned some Federal projects between 1976 and 1998, after collecting mobilisation fees, leading to the failure of such contracts. In this regard, the Chief Justice of the Federation has been directed to designate some high courts to handle the speedy trial of the failed contractors.
According to a Government White Paper on the failed projects, about 130 persons are already indicted and are expected to refund a total of N7.1 billion to the Federal Government. This is the outcome of the first phase of the contract review undertaken by the Inter-ministerial Implementation Committee led by the Minister of Works, Mr. Adeseye Ogunlewe, which considered the draft White Paper. Altogether, 65 contracts were reviewed in the Ministry of Works, 11 in the Ministry of Defence, six in the Ministry of Science and Technology and 49 in the Ministry of Education.
Given that the Committee on Abandoned Federal Projects was one of the first few panels set up by the Obasanjo Administration soon after its inauguration over five years ago, it is a bit worrisome that action on the report of the committee is just commencing. Abandonment of projects or shoddy handling of same, has been a major means of stealing public funds by highly placed persons who usually posed as contractors. Nigeria over the years has lost huge amounts of money to these corrupt (even fake) contractors.
However, now that the Federal Government has elected to deal with the matter, it should do so expeditiously and transparently. In this regard, the decision of the Government to ask the Chief Justice to select some high courts in certain zones to handle the trial of the indicted persons, is appropriate. Since this will not involve the establishment of new courts outside the existing judicial system as erroneously believed in some quarters, the process should be pursued with vigour.
This course of action is further underlined by the fact that "almost all the indicted contractors have refused to pay back", according to Ogunlewe. This makes the matter a litmus test for President Obasanjo's resolve to identify and sanction those responsible for the evidently rotten state of Nigeria's infrastructure. People under whatever guise should not be allowed to collect government money corruptly and go scot-free.
Although the probe report covers 22 years (1976-1998) of essentially military rule, the indicted persons must be tried, irrespective of their standing in the society. There should be no sacred cows; neither should the matter be allowed to fade away as used to be the case in the past. The government should extend the probe to cover the tenure of the present administration. This is necessary because the menace of abandoned projects rather than abate, has worsened in the past five years, with the value of such projects now running into several billions.
Projects abandonment is a military hang-over resulting essentially from poor or total lack of monitoring. Under the military, contracts for virtually all projects were awarded as favours to some military officers or their proxies and today, the same is being done as political patronage to party loyalists and leaders or their agents. This contract award procedure largely accounts for the absence of the will to execute the projects as well as the poor supervision of same. In most cases, the contractor and the supposed project monitor usually end up mutually colluding to share the mobilisation fee without doing any job. This has been the pattern in every facet of Nigerian public life.
Government should not treat the current matter as mere public show but should do everything possible to ensure that the failed contractors refund all their ill-gotten money to the public treasury. It is even surprising that none of the indicted personages has so far been arrested. This is disturbing, because the failed contractors are otherwise prominent citizens some of whom have been conferred with various national honours, including highly placed public and political office holders in the present administration.
Given the limited remaining life span of this administration, the Ogunlewe panel should act fast to review all ministries and extra-ministerial bodies covered by the original probe. If in the first phase of its review of the original report, it was able to cover only four ministries, it is very unlikely to do much in record time. Yet, the issue of abandoned projects or failed contracts is so serious that it has become a veritable metaphor for corruption in Nigeria. The earlier the matter is effectively dealt with, the better for the anti-corruption crusade of the government.
