The Senate on Tuesday directed its Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to investigate alleged abandonment of N8 billion headquarters project of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in Abuja.
The decision to probe the development was sequel to a motion under Matters of Urgent National Importance by Sen. Dino Melaye (APC-Kogi) during plenary.
Moving the motion, Melaye drew the attention of the senate “to the activity of some characters in trying to undermine the laws of this country and also build corruption.
“The Code of Conduct Bureau got approval from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to build their permanent site.
“This approval was backed up by an award of contract that was reviewed from about N3 billion to N8 billion.’’
According to Melaye, after the contract was awarded, over N1.4 billion was released for construction to commence at the site.
“This represents about 16 per cent of the contract. Job started and over 10 per cent job was done, but CCB requested for the purchase of a new building, thereby abandoning completely, the ongoing construction.
“Why this became urgent is because as I speak with you, due process has been completed, the Bureau for Public Procurement has already given provisional approval for the purchase of this building.
“Any moment, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be signed and the building that is not worth N4 billion will be purchased, thereby jettisoning ongoing project where government has already invested N1.4 billion,’’ he said.
He said that the purchased building had nine storeys.
The lawmaker expressed worry over the development, saying it was unexpected of CCB, an institution mandated to protect and watch over the finance of the country by checking corrupt practices in the public service.
He, therefore, called for holistic investigation into the matter.
In a remarks, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary, said that since it was an allegation, “if we subject this to debate we might be prejudicing the outcome of investigation”.
Ekweremadu explained that the senate recognised the need for the bureau to have a befitting office, but that the issue was whether there was ongoing project that had been abandoned in preference to purchasing existing one.
“We are here to ensure that public finances are appropriately spent. The thing to do is to allow the necessary committees to look into the matter and report back to us in two weeks,” he said.
