The House of Representatives has ordered a forensic
audit of the activities of the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT)
Limited from inception to date, especially over an alleged contract scam of N8
billion.
The House said while the fixed satellite service
business has proven lucrative in so many countries with a worth estimate of the
global space as high as N173 trillion, and 75 percent of this coming from
commercial revenues, NIGCOMSAT is yet to get a slice of the pie, and has
generated zero revenue.
Therefore, the House mandated "the Committees
on Information Technology (ICT) and Finance to carry out a forensic audit of
the activities of the NIGCOMSAT Limited from inception to date, and report back
within four weeks for further legislative action."
The decision of the House followed the adoption of
a motion on the need to investigate the alleged sleaze, misappropriation and
non-profitability of the NIGCOMSAT moved by the House Minority Leader, Hon.
Ndudi Elumelu, at the plenary yesterday.
Moving the motion, Elumelu said in 2006, the
federal government incorporated the NIGCOMSAT with the aim of revolutionising
the information and communications technology system in Nigeria, as well as to
improve national security, broadcasting, internet access, e-governance, health
and the educational sectors of the country.
He added that because the vision of NIGCOMSAT was
for it to be the leading satellite operator and service provider in Africa, the
company in 2007 launched the first geo-stationary communications satellite in
the sub-Saharan Africa to exploit the commercial viability of the country's communications
satellite for its socio-economic benefits.
The minority leader stressed that it costs the
federal government the sum of $340 million of tax payers’ money to build the
NIGCOMSAT-1 and a further N435 billion from the federal allocation as running
cost and another $127 million as debt servicing to the Chinese Government, but
lamented that there was little or nothing to show for these huge investments.
Elumelu said: "Disturbed that even though the
company has not been able to make contributions to the country's revenue, it
has been riddled with series of allegations ranging from contract scam to the
tune of N8 billion to bribery of government agents and withholding of vital
documents to ensure the cover up of the massive irregularities against the management
of the company.
"Also disturbed that at a time, a managing director
of the company was alleged to have wrongfully declared her assets and signed
off the company's Direct-to-Home (DTH) facility to NIGUS International
Investment Limited (a company owned by the father in-law of the head of DTH)
after she acquired shares in NIGUS through proxies.”
The minority leader expressed worry about the
allegations that the management of the company breached government policy on
procurement by ensuring that procurement matters are handled strictly between
the offices of the managing director and that of the legal adviser, which is a
breach of the country's financial regulations.
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