The House of Representatives on Friday threatened to recommend the blacklisting of Integrated Services Development Limited over alleged abandoned projects awarded by the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) since 2020.
Chairman, House Committee on Aviation Technology, Hon. Abiodun Akinlade, issued the threat notice via a statement made available to Parliamentary Correspondents in Abuja. He expressed grave concern over the refusal of the Chief Executive Officer of the company to appear before the Committee to defend why he abandoned the project for the remodelling of the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) Headquarters in Abuja, which was awarded in 2020.
According to the statement, “The Federal Ministry of Aviation awarded a contract for the construction of NSIB Headquarters to Integrated Services Development Ltd for the sum of ₦939,163,060.43 in May 2022, whereas the sum of ₦788,780,057.56, representing 97% (less VAT and tax) of the contract sum, was paid to the contractor in August 2022.
“To the dismay of the Committee members while on oversight to the NSIB Headquarters in Abuja, the contractor was never seen on site and the level of work done was put at 27% by the site consultants.”
In the course of the oversight of various projects executed by the Bureau, the Committee on Aviation Technology, chaired by Hon. Akinlade, had invited the Managing Director of the Company more than three times with no response.
To this end, the Committee members unanimously resolved to recommend that the contract be revoked and the company be blacklisted for its inability to honour the contractual agreement, coupled with the lack of capacity to execute the contract.
The Committee also resolved that relevant agencies of government will be asked to recover the money paid to Integrated Services Development Limited, as this will serve as a deterrent to “those that think they can collect Government money and abscond.”
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