The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts is probing the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for the awarding contracts of over N18.9 billion to different contractors during the COVID-19 shutdown for bush clearing.
The move became necessary out of the House curiosity about the location and importance of such projects.
The Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke who made this known on Tuesday at an inquiry hearing said the ministry and the corporations concerned have been invited by the committee for questioning.
He revealed that the invited firms absconded the hearing without giving a reasonable excuse for their absence at the hearing.
While decrying the move by the ministry, Oke said “the firms were excited to appear before the committee on investigation of contracts awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of roads, bush clearing, land preparation and rehabilitation of soil and plant laboratories video utilisation of funds from Service Wide vote between 2013 and 2021 totalling N18,924,004,359.38.”
“During the lockdown of the country as a result of COVID 19, some companies took contracts worth about N18 billion for bush clearing from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for land preparation, rehabilitation of soil plant lab and others. We cannot shave their head in their absence.”
“So, we have invited them to come and give us their own side by responding to the issues and show us the places they are supposed to have cleared. They have to take us to the land they cleared.
“We have invited the companies that got the contract for them to come and tell this committee where and when the jobs were executed.
“We will wait till the end of the hearing today to see if they will appear. If they are not here, we will have to do the needful to get them to come.”