Mr. Ahmed Rufai, former Director-General of the Nigerian Communications Satellite ( NigComSat), has given reason the $470million Abuja, Lagos Closed Circuit Television cameras project has remained non-functional.
He said the simple reason was the Federal Government’s failure to provide “operational funds” for the running of the system after it was successfully completed and tested in 2012.
Rufai disclosed that the required monthly operational budget for the security project as of 2012 was about N11billion, an amount the government was apparently unwilling to release.
Rufai revealed the details while making a presentation to an adhoc committee of the House of Representatives, investigating the project.
The committee, which is chaired by Mr. Ahmed Yerima, is of the view that Nigeria was short changed in the execution of the project and gave the assurance that the investigation would be carried to a logical conclusion.
But, the former NigComSat DG explained, “About N11bn was required as operational funding.
“I learnt it was later reviewed to about N5bn after I left office, but the funding still did not come
.
“The situation with the project is like buying a new car and refusing to provide money to buy fuel. How will the car function? Nothing is wrong with the project, but a lot of people are not aware that this is the simple reason.
“When this project was tested and commissioned, you could see the whole Lagos from Abuja.”
He claimed that the situation became embarrassing that the contractor, ZTE Nigeria, had to provide operational funding for six months upon delivery of the project.
Rufai, who served as a member of a Project Management Team the government set up to supervise the project, added that, the video surveillance cameras, the only physical component easily seen by people, were just 8.5 per cent of the entire project.
The entire project covered “installation of 2,000 digital solar-powered cameras, 1,000 each for Abuja and Lagos; 37 switch rooms, microwave backbone; 37 coalition emergency response systems; 38 video conference subs-systems; 37 e-police systems; six emergency communication vehicles; and 1.5million phone lines for subscribers to generate revenue. ”
He told the committee that the entire project was completed and delivered, while he signed the $399.5million part cost of the project in the form of a loan by the China EXIM Bank. The federal government provided the balance as counter-part funding.
But, Mr. Emeka Eze, DG of the Bureau of Public Procurement, told the committee that any project not processed by his office was “illegal”, with the exception of a project “considered to be national security project.”
Eze stated that no certificate of objection was issued by the BPP, because it did not pass through the office.
“All payments made in respect of this project are illegal, null and void, except if it is a national security project”, he added.
When the committee asked Rufai to respond to the position of the BPP, he replied that the caveat was “national security project”, which was directly authorised by only the President.
“The DG of the BPP was very careful with his choice of words; he said national security project.
“This project is a national security project. The authorisation is from Mr. President “, he said.
In its presentation to the committee, the Debt Management Office confirmed that $399.5m was the loan component of the cost of the project.
It disclosed that while Nigeria had up till 2018 to start paying the principal sum, debt servicing had already consumed $41.8m.
On its part, the contractor, ZTE, denied any wrongdoing in the execution of the project.
Mr. Hao Fuqiang, managing director of the firm, stated that the project was duly completed and delivered to the federal government.
“ZTE completed the execution of the project and acceptance certificates were issued by the federal government, indicating that the project was successfully completed and functioning.”
The Ministry of Police Affairs (now Ministry of Interior) was the supervising ministry.
The committee said all the former ministers who played a role in the project would be invited to testify.