Population commission to expend N23 Million on procurement of fire extinguishers

THE National Population Commission (NPC) has concluded plans to expend a sum of N 23 million to procure fire extinguishers for the commission’s Data Processing Centres (DPC).

The extinguishers according to a highly classified document, made available to Nigerian Tribune, Abuja, are only meant to serve the seven DPCs located in Kano, Kaduna, Ibadan, Enugu, Lagos, Yola and Port-Harcourt.

Also, a sum of 14 Million, was earmarked to provide security at the DPCs with 2 Million allocated to each centre.

This is contained in the capital expenditure proposal of the 2017 capital allocation to the Commission.

The sum is N1.1billion (1,068,000,000).

Meanwhile, market survey findings, carried out by Nigerian Tribune revealed that the prices of extinguisher sell between N2,000 to N70,000 depending on the kilogramme, quality and brand of product.

For instance, a 50 kg Carbon Dioxide (Co2) and Dry Chemical Powder (DCP) extinguishers cost between N70,000 to N75,000, which is also subject to the brand.

Similarly, a 25kg Co2 and DCP sell between N50,000 to N60,000 while 5 and 1 kg cost between N17,000 and N2,000 respectively.

This implies that with N23 Million, the commission would procure an approximated 329 units of 50kg fire extinguishers at N70,000 per unit, while each of the seven DPCs will have 47 extinguishers.

Also, if at the rate of N50,000, 460 units of 25kg of this commodity would be procured, with each DPCs having at least 65 units of the extinguisher.

The document also revealed that out of the N1.1 billion 2017 additional capital allocation, a sum of N603 million (603,410,000) was allotted for the Enumeration Area Demarcation ( EAD) phase 5.

Phase 5 is expected to cover 16 Local Government Areas LGAs.

In a supporting document, signed by the Deputy Director, Commission Secretariat, Ahmed Kumo, entitled: Extracts From Conclusions of the 164th Ordinary Meeting Of the NpopC, the commission stressed the need to conduct another phase of the EAD in view of the receipt of additional 2017 capital allocation.

The following activities were approved for the exercise; “ review of all phases and presentation of products generated from EAD fieldwork from February 12-17, 2018. Map composition, indexing and printing 28th January -24th February 2018.

“Refresher training of field personnel at local government headquarters in the selected LGAs 19th to 21st February 2018 and fieldwork for EAD phase 5, February 22 to March 15, 2018.”

Also included in the proposed expenditure is the recruitment of Ad-hoc Staff for the EAD phase 5, which will gulp a separate sum of N17 million (17,095,000).

Other expenditures include; “Zimbabwe, Mauritania trips, N9.6 and N5 million respectively, population projection at 774 LGAs/ State and National level, Ad-Hoc registrars September -December 2017 N38.08 million, project drivers September 2017-January 2018 N13.5 million, Office safety equipment machine and installations N9 million, Satnet Link service Ltd(Database restoration) N2.08 million.

“Hephzibah Integrated (Operating Systems Reactivation)N2.07 million, contribution towards the printing of DD roadmap payable to population Institute N10 million, Processing of field data N40 million,CRVS/Census/Monitoring N77.1 million, internal audit N11 Million, Federal audit N8 million, National Data analysis and dissemination in 774 LGAs, stated and national level N70 million.

“Accountant Capacity Building on Data capturing/IPSAS/Accrual/GIFMIS N15.3 million, Remita/system specs charges N15 million, Workshop N18 million, NIPSS(Director IT) N4 million, Market surveying for procurement items N2.7 million.”

However, efforts to get the commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Muhammed Isah to react to the development proved abortive as at the time of filing this report.