A presidential committee probing contracts awarded by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) between 2011 and 2015 has indicted more than 300 companies and prominent citizens, including serving and retired military officers.
Over N7billion has been recovered so far from the indicted companies and individuals while another N41billion is to be refunded by them, according to a Presidency statement on Thursday night.
The Presidency has also ordered further investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to determine whether another N75 billion should be recovered from some of the companies for unexecuted or partially executed contracts.
The committee, which is different from another one investigating the Defence Arms and Equipment Procurement, established that one of the indicted companies, Societe D’Equipment International, was overpaid to the tune of 7.9 million Euros and $7.09 million.
It discovered that there was a total disregard of salient provisions of the Public Procurement Act in the award of contracts by ONSA, according to the statement issued by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu.
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 their tax obligations for contracts executed.
The committee succeeded in recovering some of the funds from these individuals and organizations amounting to N3.53 billion; $8 million and houses worth N512 million from 32 companies.
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