By Muhammad Tanimu, Abuja
The office of the embattled Permanent Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Olusade Adesola has been engulfed in bribery and curruption allegations even as he remains at the receiving end of potshots thrown at him by the labour unions within the administration two weeks ago, accusing him of occupying an illegal office.
Now he has incurred the wrath of contractors who claimed they executed various COVID-19 contracts for the administration between March 2020 and April 2021, without being paid.
The over 300 angry contractors, as early as 10am stormed Area 11 where the offices of FCT Ministers and that of the Permanent Secretary are located, and blocked the major entrances.
One of the Contractors, Emmanuel Nwachendu, said, ” the accusation of N1 million bribe before contractors are paid is true. This is one whole year after the supply. The agreement states that two weeks after the supply, and once you supply, bring your invoice and you will be paid.
” This is one year running and nothing, what we are hearing is that each of the contractor has to pay N1 million bribe to the Permanent Secretary before we can be paid”, Nwachendu said.
According to the contractors, the Permanent Secretary has only been paying some of the contractors , who reportedly agreed to give him N1 million bribe.
They further alleged that they supplied various medical equipment and Personal Protective Equipment and other things used in containing the pandemic.
” We supplied medical equipment, reagents, PPE, but since last year, it has been one story or the other. What we heard initially was that procurement process was suspended and the money was supposed to have been paid within two weeks, maximum 1 month, of supply. Some of us took loan to be able to meet up with the supply.
” This Permanent Secretary, Adesola Olusade came and met with us, he brought about procurement process, that day we were over 300 contractors in the room, the hall became rowdy, that was October 2020. And they told us they were waiting for suplementary budget, that as soon as the suplementary budget is passed that we are going to be paid . As soon as the suplementary budget was passed, they asked us to to bring our documents which we did.
” We followed it up to ensure that everyone made it. We followed the files; what is annoying was that they batched the files , they said they they were paying 80% and we agreed. And they paid the 1st batch but when it got to the second batch which has more contractors, they stopped.
” We even followed it up, from one department to the other, after the 5th week, the Permanent Secretary said for the 1st batch that he only paid those below N10m and there are some of us that are below N5 millon but were not paid.
The Permanent Secretary said it was only one person that was working on the files but now he got more people to work on the files so we said no problem.
After two weeks, we started hearing different stories that some were collecting 0.5% and some said they were asking for N1 million bribe from each of the contractor”.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary has denied ever asking anybody for a N1 million bribe. He has also reaffirmed his commitment to pay all outstanding liabilities owed to contractors who supplied various items in the battle against COVID-19 pandemic in the territory, stressing that the delay in paying the contractors was due to their failure to meet all the administrative requirements.
” I am not aware of any payment of 1 million Naira. The only instruction I gave was that all documents should be in file before any payment can be made.The payment is in batches, we have paid others.
” Contractors below N10m have been paid, If there are issues, the contractors are the cause because they are yet to meet up with the requirements”, Adesola said.