Nigeria’s Lawmakers query NNPC, Tecnimont over $49m contract infractions

The House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc committee probing the state of refineries in the country has queried the approval process involved in the approval of over $49m Maire Tecnimont Nigeria limited for integrity test of refineries in the country by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

The Chairman of the House Ad-hoc committee, Hon. Ganiyu Johnson issued the query following the appearance of the managing director of Tecnimont Nigeria limited at the resumed hearing of the committee, in Abuja.

The Ganiyu Johnson led ad-hoc committee also directed that Maire Tecnimont Nigeria Limited provide proof of payment made by the NNPC for the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries.

According to the chairman, the reason given by the NNPC on why the nation’s refineries are not working is not satisfactory to the committee.

The contract was the first phase of the refurbishment of the Port Hacourt refinery, but Hon. Johnson said that the state of refineries in the country revealed that some infractions had been discovered during it’s investigation.

He added: “The House probe panel is determined to ascertain the actual cost of rehabilitation of the nation’s four refineries”.

Awarded Contracts

Responding to questions from the members of the committee, Vice President Sub-Sahara Africa region and Managing Director (Nigeria) Tecnimont, Davide Pelizzola, disclosed that the contract was awarded in 2019 at $49million by the (NNPC).

Pelizzola admitted that the approved $50 million is for the first phase of the refurbishment of Refineries across the country.

However, further inquiries by the committee revealed that the Port Harcourt refinery currently under construction is being handled by a Japanese firm and not Maire Tecnimont as claimed.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director, Refining of the NNPC, Philip Chukwu, said that the first advance payment was 10 percent of the amount adding that the second will be 5 percent.

Chukwu said that the Group Managing Director GMD of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, has asked to be excused by the committee as he was having a top management meeting with staff.

A member of the House ad-hoc committee, Hon Stanley Olajide said that a lot of questions needed to be answered by the contractor on the State of the refineries.

But further Investigations revealed that the fraud surrounding the award of the TAM of the Port Harcourt Refinery started when little known Tecnimont, an Italian Company, co-opted Daewoo as partners to bid for the $1.5billion contract.

Also, the lawmakers queried the NNPC for failure in its duty to undertake regular turn around; and requested both parties to submit all evidences of contracts approved by the Federal Executive Council and payment proofs including the level of work done to the committee.

 The committee had been investigating and engaging the NNPC and the engineering company handling the contract for the rehabilitation exercise of the Port Harcourt refinery which they alleged had yielded no result.

Recall that the Ad-hoc committee  had on June 4, 2022, summoned the Managing Director of Tecnimont Nigeria Limited, a major contractor of the NNPC, over the state of the nation’s refineries.

Hauwa Abu