Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secrets Reporters
The Lagos State Ministry of Wealth Creation & Employment and the Office of Deputy Governor are involved in contract racketeering schemes. Data have shown how they awarded multiple contracts to unqualified companies suspected of being owned by cronies.
Data concealed in the Lagos State open procurement portal show how the Ministry of Wealth Creation & Employment awarded three contracts to the tune of nine million, six hundred and ninety-five thousand Naira to unqualified companies.
SecretsReporters gathered from the portal that in June 2022, the Ministry awarded a contract worth five million Naira (N5,000,000.00) to Sammy Sparkle Nigeria Limited for the “Equipping of the Permanent Secretary’s Office”.
Digging into the details of the company that bagged the contract, it was unearthed that it did not have up to three years of taxation before it was awarded. Sammy Sparkle Nigeria Limited was registered on 19 May 2021.
In a similar dubious move, the Ministry of Wealth Creation & Employment awarded a contract worth nine hundred thousand Naira (N900,000.00), for “Repairs and Servicing of 4 (Four) Utility Vehicles of the Ministry” to Modarfix Nigeria Automobile Engineering in June 2022.
When this online media dug into the details of Modarfix Nigeria Automobile Engineering, it was discovered that it was registered on 28 March 2021, implying that the company did not have up to three years of taxation before it was awarded.
Remarkably, further findings revealed that in another illegitimate move, the Ministry, in June 2022, gifted a contract worth three million, seven hundred and ninety-five thousand Naira (N3,795,000.00) to Sammy Sparkle Nigeria Limited.
According to the contract details, the project was for the Procurement of Office Furniture in the Ministry.
Meanwhile, the company that executed the contract, beating competition from other qualified companies, was registered on 19 May 2021, denoting that it didn’t have up to three years of taxation before it was awarded.
In the same vein, this online media gathered that the Office of the Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, in June 2022, awarded a contract worth N700,000.00 to Cax Prints for the “Production of Letter Papers, Call Cards, Memo Pads and Continuation Sheets for Mr. Deputy Governor”.
Findings show that the company which was registered on 06 Nov 2020 did not have up to three years of taxation before it was awarded. It is also not clear how the ‘unqualified’ company beat competition from other companies to win the contract since the Office of the Governor hid the bidding process from the populace.
