It appears there is a mixup somewhere in the reportage of what transpired during the House of Committee on Public Accounts investigative hearing on the alleged bush clearing contracts awarded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. While media headlines largely gave the impression that N18.9billion was spent on bush clearing, the ministry said only about N2.5billion was spent on bush clearing and land preparation of 3,200 hectares in eight states, as allocated by the respective state governments.
Wole Oke’s (the committee chairman) statement seemed to give the impression that the money was not for bush clearing alone when he said that “during the lockdown of the country as a result of COVID 19, some companies took contract worth about N18 billion for bush clearing from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, for land preparation, rehabilitation of soil plant lab and others.” The Federal Ministry of Agriculture was later to clarify that it did not spend N18.9billion on bush clearing alone but on other rural projects, including roads in the six geo-political zones of the country, soil sampling and mapping, farmers registration as well as rehabilitation and equipping of four national soil laboratories in Umudike (Abia State), Ibadan (Oyo State), Kaduna (Kaduna State) and FCT Abuja.
“It is also important to state that the ministry did not spend N18.9bn on bush clearing as reported. The ministry only carried out Bush clearing and land preparation of 3,200 hectares in eight states of Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Cross River, Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau and Ogun states as allocated by respective state governments at a total cost of 2.5 billion Naira”, the ministry said in a statement by its director of information, Dr Joel Oruche.
Again, the ministry denied receiving any audit query to warrant summon by the committee. But the committee chair gave the impression that the hearing was prompted by the query of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) that looked into the bush clearing contracts.
Indeed, it was based on this that the committee asked the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to furnish it with the details of the companies that got the contracts — their years of incorporation, corporate offices, names of their owners and shareholders. The committee also directed the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to give it details of their financial status.
All said, there are some contradictions in the reports that require clarifications. First, was the public hearing a product of the AuGF’s report? What are the details specified in the audit query concerning the contracts? Was any audit query ever sent to the ministry on the matter? This question is pertinent because the ministry has denied ever receiving any audit query.
Just like members of the committee, the public would also be interested in confirming the execution of all the contracts that the ministry claimed it had executed with the N18.9 billion. As the committee chair observed, “but some of our members whose constituencies these projects were supposed to be domiciled doubted the existence of these projects and for fair hearing, we have invited the companies that got the contract for them to come and tell this committee where and when the jobs were executed.”
On matters like this which involve public funds, there must not be any ambiguity. This is especially so in our kind of situation where corruption is pervasive. There are several cases of fictitious contracts, unexecuted contracts and inflated contracts, none of which is good for the polity.
So, there is need for clarity on this issue. The way things are, it is not good for proper book-keeping. This is why we encourage the House committee that is looking into the matter to be thorough in its assignment. At the end of it all, Nigerians want to know the exact position of things. Was N18.9 billion spent to clear bush alone? Were there other contracts executed with the money? If yes, were they delivered to specification? Was the country short-changed in any way? These are some of the gray areas that must be illuminated to bring closure to this bush clearing saga.