BY AMINU LABO.
For inordinate ambition of wanting to become Kano governor in the next dispensation, the new Director General, National Productivity Centre NPC, Baffa Baba Danagundi has made it mandatory for contractors to pay illegal 5% tagged administrative fee by contractors before assessing offer letters of contracts awarded by the agency as against the procurement act .
The new leadership under Dan Agundi adopted this to enable the political leadership and seasoned politician from Kano made as the Director General of the centre to fund his impending political ambition.
Aside introduction of stringent measure through appointment of a desk officer staff to collect the illegal 5% illegal fee , he also made it mandatory for contractors to fund supervision of jobs by staffers of the agency against the provision of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences ICPC, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Fiscal Responsibility Commission FRC.
Before now , the introduction of five percentage payment from contractors are deducted when final payment of contract sum and execution is carried out on the part of contractors, but the new trend enabled the new Director General, National Productivity Centre NPC to have enough float to play around with every weekend ranging from 50 Million to 100 Million unaccounted for,
Aside this , contractors are also been forced to pay certain amount of money to staff going on supervision against the lay down procedures, before now contractors doled out on goodwill, why the centre fund all the process.
Since assumption of duty , Danagundi has deliberately discouraged the statutory activities and mandate of the agency charged with training and retraining of public and private organizations with a view to promoting productivity.
All emissaries to encourage the centre on the statutory functions has fell on deaf ear , not good for the centre and diversification of productivity template across the globe.
Recently a lady was made to sell his hard earned assets and landed property to enable her pay for the illegal 5% justified by the new Director General, with a dedicated account traceable and signatory by only him.
Most contractors who are vendors of Constituency projects for federal lawmakers totalling over 66 Billion for 2024 budget have abandoned their offer letters owing to the new format of payment upfront, before assessing offer letters of the National Productivity Centre as introduced by the new Director General of the centre.
An appeal has however gone the anti graft agencies, ICPC and EFCC to launch a thorough investigation into the activities of the new Director General, National Productivity Centre NPC who assumed duty at a time when offer letters for contract for 2024 was getting ready in July , 2024.
The ploy is to scare away legitimate contractors and scuttle procurement process against the lay down procedures, mop up the jobs and award them to his cronies from Kano state.
As at press time , contractors have paid over 500 Million Naira as illegal 5% administrative fee to enable them assess their offer letters, while those that cannot make upfront payments abandoned their letters and jobs.
The contractors have also devised another way of moving their jobs from the agency in the 2025 budget including the federal lawmakers whose jobs is running to 66 Billion constituency projects.
Investigation revealed that the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives have launched a formal detailed position to unravel the nitty-gritty and unearth the complaints been raised by contractors.
