Dakuku Peterside, the immediate past Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, has queried the 16 billion naira which Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike said it has spent for the ongoing construction of the Port Harcourt Law School.
According to Peterside, Wike awarded the contract from his ‘breast pocket’ as no bidding for the contract initiated.
He added that the huge spending never got the approval of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The former gubernatorial aspirant stressed that due process was equally not followed in the area of advertisement and competitive quotation from interested contracting firms.
He said: “Rivers people may not yet understand the damage being done to the finances of the state government as many contracts have been awarded under Wike’s administration without following the due process.
“Rivers State has a public procurement law that clearly states how contracts should be advertised and awarded to successful bidders, we have not seen such in this administration. Contracts are just simply awarded from the breast pocket of the governor and to who he likes.
“Under what law did the governor award the contract from his private residence? Who evaluated the Bill of Quantities(BQ) and how do you account for N5 billion set aside for miscellaneous? Under what law are 50-70 percent advance payments made?
“I know that the governor’s usual attack dogs will respond without first thinking of the future of Rivers generations and governance where one man single-handedly awards contracts without laid down procedures”.
He claimed that Rivers people do not even have access to the state’s budget, hence do not know how many more contracts have been awarded without budgetary provisions and in accordance with laid down procurement law as enacted by the House of Assembly.
“In due season, we shall demand how the governor has spent our collective wealth and shall account for every money that he has fritter away in a veiled attempt to hoodwink Rivers people.
“Governance is beyond brick and mortar, it is beyond the award of contracts, it is deliberate and measured, aimed at touching key sectors and giving the youth the platform to excel but the governor is sadly bereft of such ideas,” he said.
