Information reaching 247ureports.com from a competent source familiar with the goings-on inside the presidency indicate that the corruption within the Ministries appear unabated and strong despite the President’s vocal efforts to curtail the scrounge of continued graft in Nigeria’s administrative system. Particularly, the information received indicates that the Minister of Water Resources in the person of Engineer Suleiman Hussani Adamu FNSE may have started off his administrative duties following the signing of the appropriations bill – on a bad foot and/or corrupt foot.
Over 1,500 projects were slated to kick out as part of the water resources mandate to ensure water supply across the country. Most of the projects were tied to the various water basins across the nation to provide water boreholes and other auxiliary services. The total contract sum is valued at over N2.54billion. The projects were reported to be set to take off – when the supervising minister called the project off.
Our source pointed to the reason for calling the project off as being based solely on pecuniary interest and not on administrative interest. He explained that the Minister was a Civil Engineer who operated his private engineering consulting firm [Integrated Engineering Associates (IEA)] prior to becoming the Minister. And the Minister’s Engineer firm remains active till date. The source pointed to the reason for halting the project as centering on his desire to corner the majority of the contract awards. “He wants his engineering firm to get the lion share of the projects“.
247ureports.com independent inquiry confirmed that the Minister had indeed cancelled the contract awards for no particular reason – other than to re-review the contract award process. The many parastatals under the purview of the Ministry have become settled by the Minister’s action – to the point that activities at the affected parastatal have come to a near halt.
But the larger implication of the Minister’s action is its immediate impact on the ailing economy. The minister’s denial of contract awards results in the stoppage of N2.54billion from being injected in the economy and into people’s pockets.
