By Disun Amosun
Water Resources Minister, Engr Suleiman Adamu has incurred the ire of the Public Account Committee of the House of Representatives for admittedly usurping the functions of agencies under the Ministry by ordering the auctioning of government property within the confines of the 12 River Basin Development Authorities across the country.
Committee Chairman Rep. Oluwole Oke who spoke on Monday while reviewing the Minister’s appearance before the Committee on Thursday, June 16, 2022, said that the Minister claimed that he was not aware of the provisions of section 55 of the Public Procurement Act which vested the power to auction the propQualityerties on the agencies.
The Ministry had, through four Auctioneers, auctioned several billions of naira worth of assets at a total sum of N137, 235,746.50, a figure which is a far cry from the valuation of the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation.
Oke had sought to know whether the Management of four of the River Basin Development Authorities that appeared before the committee willingly auctioned the property of the agencies, informed that it was a crime in the eye of the law for them to allow another person to perform their duties without recourse to the law
He said “your Minister was here last week and admitted that he actually raped the law. He apologised and said he did not think that this law actually existed. How can you just carry auctioneers, give them government property to auction.
“Is the Minister for Water Resources the same as the Upper Niger Basin Development Authority? They went to Abeokuta and carried the property belonging to Nigerians and thy admitted that we have 12 River Basin Development Authorities.
“The Auctioneers were here and we asked them how they knew that the items will be auctioned. Where is the advertisement you responded to. How many auctioneers do we have in Nigeria and why is it just four that were selected to do the auction? Your colleague from Abeokuta was rushing to defend the Ministry.
