NPA Denies Dredging Bid Fraud At Escravos Channel
The management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has denied any wrong doing in the bid process leading to award of the dredging of the Warri Port Channel to favour any bidder.
Reacting to the allegation of process fraud brought against it by one of the project bidders, Dredging Atlantic Limited, the Authority maintained that the bid process was transparently carried out and urged the complainant to desist from misleading the public and accept its defeat in good faith without attempts at mudslinging.
The Managing Director of the NPA, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, last weekend told Journalists that she has said that the same dredging firm handled the Calabar port channel, and made a mess of the project.
Usman said that the firm had capacity in terms of equipment to dredge Escravos channel in Warri adding that government was trying to recover some of the monies paid to the firm for no work done.
Dredging Atlantic Limited through its legal representative, Mr. Liborous Oshoma, last week accused the NPA of tinkering with its financial bid tender and those of others, including Dredging International Services Nigeria, which won the Escravos Channel dredging bid.
According to Oshoma, Dredging Atlantic Limited emerged first in the technical bid with 89 points, against 75 points scored by Dredging International Services of Nigeria, an affiliate of Dredging International Limited, based in Cyprus.
He added that his client also won the commercial bid with a bid of $44.880million as against $44.998million by the competitor, even as he claimed that the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has queried NPA and indicted its management for carrying out ‘arithmetic correction’ in the figures of financial tenders of both Dredging International Services of Nigeria and Dredging Atlantic Limited, as part of the evaluation process to ensure that tender prices are correct and that bidders are properly ranked.
It turned out, however, that BPP did frown at what it termed administrative lapses in the bid review by NPA, it did not however uphold the complainant’s position that the bid process was flawed.
The BPP in a letter with reference BPP/S.1/A&WR/18/VOL.1/079, dated March 23,2018, read in part, “This is to refer to the Dredging Atlantic Limited letter of complaint dated February 28, 2018, which requested for an administrative review of the NPA with respect to the tender for remedial works at Escravos Channel-Replacement of Navigational Aids and Mirror Dredging at Delta Port Notice No-4012, over various acts of non-compliance with the requirements of the Public Procurement Act (PPA), 2007.
“Be informed that the Bureau received a request for Due Process Certificate of “Non Objection” from NPA for award of this project and that the request has already been reviewed and certified by the above and in accordance with Sec. 54 of the PPA, 2007, the Bureau has considered the complaints raised in your letter and wishes to comment as follows: the NPA carried out arithmetic corrections on the financial tenders of both Dredging International Services of Nigeria and Dredging Atlantic Limited as part of the evaluation process to ensure that tender prices are correct and that bidders are properly ranked. “Sec. 31 (4) of the PPA, 2007 supports correction of arithmetic errors.
The NPA however failed to communicate the outcome to the affected bidders in line with sec. 35 (5) of the PPA, 2007.
This procedural lapse has already been communicated to the NPA to ensure compliance in subsequent procurements but is not grievous enough to warrant nuIIifying the tender exercise.”
The BPP added, “Messrs DAL alleged that the NPA refused the DAL/its representatives to countersign on all vital pages of the tender of Messrs DISN.
The Bureau observed this lapse during the prior review exercise on this procurement proceeding and drew the attention of the NPA to Clause 60 of the Public Procurement Regulations for goods and works, and advised the NPA to ensure strict compliance with this procedure in subsequent procurements in order to enhance transparency and ensure that there are no substitutions of bids after submission.”
