An engineering company operating in the Oil and Gas sector under the aegis of DE COON Services Limited has petitioned the House of Representatives over several contracts scams and non-payment of the sums of over $30m and N70M owed it by Nigeria Agip Oil Company, NAOC.
The Managing Director of the firm, Engr. Nelson Onubogu in the petition addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, said the amounts represented the debt NAOC had refused to issue the required Purchase Orders that would allow the company submit invoices for payment despite the services having been already provided to NAOC for NAOC’s Oil and Gas production.
He alleged that NAOC which owned 20 per cent share in the Joint Venture (JV) operation with the Federal Government was trying to frustrate and transfer his company’s contracts to it’s Italian, local Contractors and stooges. The Federal Government (NNPC) owned 60% while OANDO owns the balance of 20%
He accused two staff of NAOC, of being used to perpetuate the contractual and financial crimes
He, therefore, appealed to the House of Representatives through its Committee on Petroleum Upstream led by Hon. Sarkin Musa Adar to carry out a thorough investigation into the allegations raised by his company.
The MD also asked the Reps Committee to ask NAOC to pay all outstanding bills due to his company plus compensation for late payment and damages caused to his company’s operations by intentional sabotages of their operations.
He also prayed the House to direct NAOC to allow his company to supply the two new gas generators to enable them to submit her invoices since NAOC, NAPIMS and OANDO participated in the Factory Acceptance Test at the Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (CATERPILLAR) facility in the USA and signed the Test Reports.
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The Managing Director also demanded the immediate implementation by NAOC of the 2018 rate of the CAT, GMC contract as directed by NNPC via NAPIMS.
As at 2018, over $16.5 million dollars stood as a debt due to DE COON Services Ltd by NAOC, but this had now grown to over $30m (over N13b).
According to Engr. Nelson Onubogu, Nigeria local content law had made it possible for local Nigerian companies to grow and develop in the oil and gas industries, to this effort must not be allowed to be strangulated.
He submitted all the evidence of the debts owed his company and other documents showing shreds of evidence of arbitrarily contracts scams and manipulations against his company by NAOC.
These documents showed that if actions are not taken to correct these criminalities by the members of the committee, these huge debts, would affect not just De Coon but other local contractors as well.
Speaking further, the Managing Director of De Coon stated that “Mr Tiani Alessandro of NAOC authorised their legal department to hold several meetings with us to reconcile the bills for payment, but NAOC’s legal department simply informed us that they have the management’s mandate to offer us a settlement payment of $2 million only” he stated.
Irrespective of this huge debt to De Coon, Mr Tiani Alessandro of NAOC directed his men to:
* Block the award of the Maintenance contract for the Compressors won by De Coon via a Nipex tender since early 2019 till now.
* Ensure that De Coon is not allowed to progress to commercial-stage of any Nipex tender. For this De Coon was blocked from the list of companies bidding at the commercial stage for the ESP tender.
* Replace De Coon with NAOC’s stooges in all their existing contracts by conducting quick tenders on those jobs while excluding De Coon from participating in the tenders. This is irrespective of the fact that is the incumbent contractor on those jobs.
and then