Posted by By JAMES OJO, Abuja on
The House of Representatives probing the award of the management contract of NITEL/M-TEL to Pentascope International B.V. Private Limited by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has indicted the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir EL-Rufai, on his handling of the transaction and accused him of lying on oath.
The House of Representatives probing the award of the management contract of NITEL/M-TEL to Pentascope International B.V. Private Limited by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has indicted the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir EL-Rufai, on his handling of the transaction and accused him of lying on oath.
"Mallam El- Rufai certainly has something to hide by his actions. He lied on oath because awarding the contract to the wrong company has put NITEL and M-TEL in their present predicament," the House Committee on Communications stated on page 31 of its reports on the failed contract.
It would be recalled that failure of Pentascope to achieve the target set by the contract terms led to the termination of the contract, and the probe by the House Committee on Communications.
According to the reports of the committee, Mallam El- Rufai's statements to the House were found to have contradicted the stipulations of the contract he signed as the Director General of BPE.
"Therefore, arising from the huge discrepancies between his statements on oath, vis-a-vis the stipulations of the management contract agreement in its page 6, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai lied on oath, which is tantamount to perjury," the committee concluded.
Mallam El-Rufai had claimed before the House Committee that KPN operational records were not the factors responsible for appointing Pentascope, adding that what was upper most was Pentascope records as contained in its submission to BPE.
The House concluded that El-Rufai must have forgotten that Pentascope as a company did not meet a single criterion as published by BPE, especially as it was registered on January 1, 2002 with a paid-up capital of 23,000 Euros-three months before the company won the contract.
"The Committee further discovered that Mallam EL-Rufai deceived the nation by pretending through the BPE advertisement that he was bringing a reputable telecommunications company to manage NITEL only to end up awarding the contract to Pentascope," the report added.
The FCT Minister was accused of helping in the recruitment of key officers of Pentascope such as the CEO, CFO and the CTO.
El-Rufai successor, Dr. Julius Bala, was also found culpable for not monitoring the performances of Pentascope as spelt out in the contract terms, while the former chairman of NITEL board was recommended for sanctions for the roles played in the mess.
The firm of Bello Osagie Legal Advisers and Price Water House Coopers (PWH) who recommended Pentascope to the BPE were indicted for misleading the country on the contract.
El-Rufai had said that the management contract with Pentascope would have been the best thing to happen to NITEL if BPE's recommendations were followed.
According to him, the contract specified that there should be a five-man executive management committee to take quick decision in the running of NITEL, which was never set up after he left BPE.