Posted by From Kunle Aderinokun in Abuja on
A fraud has been uncovered in the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) as there are allegations of inflation by a total of N550 million in the contract price for the printing of the Vehicle Insurance Sticker (VISER).
A fraud has been uncovered in the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) as there are allegations of inflation by a total of N550 million in the contract price for the printing of the Vehicle Insurance Sticker (VISER).
The Tender Board Committee which reviewed the contract awarded to Rocstone International Limited, London discovered that the contract for the printing of five million units of VISER was awarded at N50 per unit instead of N39 initially demanded by the contractor, thus creating a surplus of N11 per unit. The fraud rocking the commission was detected at meeting between the committee and Rocstone.
The contract which was broken down into batches of 400,000 units per batch, took off last year with the printing of the first batch of 400,000 while the second batch of 410,500 was give out.
Blowing the lid off, a member of the Tender Board Committee alleged that the Commissioner for Insurance, NAICOM, Chief Oladipo Bailey inflated the unit price by N11 and recommended its cancellation which the NAICOM board, before its dissolution upheld.
However, Bailey denied ever inflating the contract price for VISER or call for its cancellation. He added that the commission was still on-going, with the printing of the next batch.
He stated that the board had approved N50 per sticker as contained in the contract paper adding that every body involved then was at their appropriate level of thinking when the decision was made.
He explained that Rocstone fixed the unit price at N50 to cater for inflation and probable rise in the exchange rate which according to him, affected the cost of printing of the stickers.