The Network for the Actualisation of Social Growth and Viable Development (NEFGAD), a procurement advocacy group, has slammed the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs) over its decision to relocate projects.
FIJ had reported how, on May 15, 2023, the OSSAP-SDGs paid N147.1 million into the account of Enseno Global Ventures, a restaurant based in Abuja.
After this report, the office issued its rebuttal. It claimed that the figure was N141 million and said the projects were done on two locations away from its original spot, a submission already established in FIJ’s report.
Desmond Utomwen, media assistant to the OSSAP-SDGs, told FIJ that the office did not know the company was a restaurant.
Reacting to this rebuttal, NEFGAD said the relocation of the project from the original site was “an aberration unknown to extant procurement regulations”.
In a statement on Saturday, Akingunola Omoniyi, the head of NEFGAD, said the relocation of the project during execution reflected a “total disconnect” and an indication that the “entire procurement proceeding is standing on nothing”.
“NEFGAD says that a public procurement proceeding is unique in its entirety with no room for any ambiguity that will make it unimplementable or untraceable for public accountability and scrutiny, hence, the mandatory requirement of a project evaluation/feasibility and impacts assessments reports as a precondition for any procurement proceeding, these reports serve as Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) carrying all genetic information of the project including project location, land survey and other geo-features necessary to the successful implementation/execution of the project,” the statement reads.
“The relocation of this project during execution shows total disconnect, meaning the entire procurement proceeding is standing on nothing.
“Changing project location during project implementation is an aberration unknown to extant procurement regulations and can best be described as changing the goalpost in the middle of a game.
“The project relocated from its original site has become null and void. The executed project in the new location is a brand new project requiring an entirely new procurement proceeding/process to gain legality.”
NEFGAD dubbed the move unacceptable and said it would not go unchallenged through legal action.
“The SDG office’s position is unacceptable and would not go unchallenged through appropriate legal means,” NEFGAD added. [Credit: FIJ]
