The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Failed Rail Contracts, yesterday, discovered 169 ghost companies registered as contractors with the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, for projects valued at N1 trillion.
Chairman of the committee, Johnson Agbonnayinman, (Ikpoba/Okha federal constituency) discovered the scam when they invite contractors to a meeting and no one showed up stating that efforts to reach them have so far proven abortive.
He added that so far, only the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC, responded to the committee’s letter.
He said:
“You are duty bound to produce the contractors. They are nowhere to be found; they are not faceless but yet they cannot be reached.
“You gave them the job, so you should produce them; we are holding you responsible.”The committee also asked the corporation’s MD, Mr. Adeseyi Sijuwade, to make available the agency’s record of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, between 2010 and 2014, and to explain to the the committee what the IGR was used for.
In response, the MD said the IGR was used to augment the agency’s overhead budget.
Vanguard