The House of Representatives has urged the Bureau for Public Enterprise BPE to account for about N10 billion allegedly used for the registration of two companies for the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST).
Bamidele Salam, chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, made the call in Abuja at the committee’s resumed investigative hearing.
According to him, the companies; NIPOST Transport and Logistics Ltd. and NIPOST Property reportedly took off in May 2023 and folded up through a Presidential directive in May 2024.
“No reasonable Nigerian will believe that N10.4 billion was spent to register the two companies. These companies eventually folded up one year after takeoff,” he said.
The BPE head of finance and accounts, who stood in for the agency’s director-general, Imam Rilwan, told the committee that of the said amount, N10 million was given to the two companies for their take-off.
Rilwan said about N400 million was given to the BPE to prepare the ground for the takeoff of the companies, noting that the registration of the two companies for NIPOST was approved in 2017.
According to him, this paved the way for BPE to expend about N423 million in registering and carrying out other activities for the eventual takeoff of the companies saying that when the money was eventually released in 2023, the bureau had to recover it.
Rilwan who informed that the N423 million given to the BPE was used to rent office accommodation and other essential services, said that while the bureau paid rent for the two companies in 2022, the companies took possession of the offices in May 2023 and folded up in May 2024.
According to him, all property belonging to the two companies had been officially handed over to NIPOST management.
Responding, Mr Salam said spending money from the government coffers before the money was released was a violation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.
Mr Salam, however, directed the director-general of BPE, Ayodeji Gbeleyi, to personally appear before the committee on Wednesday, September 11 at 12:00 noon with all relevant documents relating to the transaction.
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) is a government agency in Nigeria, responsible for implementing policies on privatisation and commercialisation. The Bureau was created by the Public Enterprises (Privatisation and Commercialisation) Act of 1999. The organisation's main goal is to implement the Nigerian federal government's programme of privatising public enterprises, carrying out sector reforms and liberalization of key economic sectors especially I'm the area of infrastructure.
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