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The leadership of
the House of Representatives might have stalled further legislative
action on the report of the committee which indicted an oil firm, Total
Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) in a $43 million contract for the
purchase of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs).

This indication
emerged at the weekend following complaints by TILONE Nigeria Ltd,
which petitioned the House on the alleged breach of contract by the oil
giant.

The contract for
four Remotely Operated Vehicles Services for the Akpo Field Development
Project on Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130 was initially awarded to TILONE
Nigeria Limited but was later given to TUPNI.

The House Committee
on Public Procurement subsequently investigated the matter and laid its
report on December 17, 2009. However, since then the report has not
been considered.

The committee said
in the report that the management of TUPNI deliberately and willfully,
and against best business practices, disregarded the rules and
regulations governing the award of contract for the project.

It also said the
award of the contract contravenes the Public Procurement Act and local
content policy in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

The report also
indicted TUPNI on the falsification of the bid figures submitted by
TILONE and recommended that anti-graft bodies should further
investigate the matter and prosecute culprits.

It was gathered
that the petitioner recently sent representatives to the House to find
out why the report was yet to be listed for consideration in plenary
six months after it was ready.

Talk of blackmail

When contacted, the
chairman of the Public Procurement Committee, Yusuf Tuggar, said it was
only his Rules and Business Committee counterpart, Ita Enang that could
give reasons for the delay.

“You should ask Ita
Enang that question,” Mr. Tuggar said, adding “The issue is out of our
hands. We have presented the report, the House has accepted it. The
next thing is the consideration of the report; So it is now completely
out of our hands. Every standing committee in this House has its own
functions and we cannot overstep our boundary.”

Mr. Enang, in his
response, said the failure to list the matter is not deliberate, noting
that it is always upstaged by other more important matters. Some of
them, according to him include the budget and the recently concluded
constitution review.

He described as “blackmail” insinuations that TUPNI had approached the leadership to abort the deliberation of the report.