I DID NOT AWARD CONTRACTS TO MY FAMILY MEMBERS..EL RUFAI

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has denied awarding contracts to members of his family, friends and close government officials, describing Sahara Reporters allegations as false.
The Governor stated categorically that, there was nothing like N3bn drainage contract bazaar, nor was he and his family and senior officials of the government involved in sharing contracts or using fronts.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, Governor El-Rufai said his government has rather stepped in to stop one of its agencies going rogue on the drainage works, stopped the project, reviewed it and took disciplinary action.

According to the statement issued in reaction to Shara Reporters’ allegations that the Governor awarded contracts to his wife, children and top government officials without due process, “Upon review of the state of the projects, KDSG has not paid anything beyond the N119.2m KAPWA expended prior to the drainage project being suspended. Investigations have verified further outstanding payments of N626m.

“It is regrettable that the actions that were taken to prime our local economy through massive public works executed in small lots, and drawing in many of our citizens is now being used to scandalize the government and prominent citizens.

“Kaduna State is thorough about advertising its contracts. Its tenders are regularly published in national newspapers. In 2016, KDSG published 72 adverts for tenders and employment opportunities. Thus far, in 2017, we have advertised 19 tenders and vacancies.
 The default mode for the government is a rigorous insistence on open, competitive tendering. But not every contract meets the threshold for this. The Public Procurement Law of the state requires that only contracts above N5m be advertised.

“The government of Kaduna State and its leadership do not use fronts or engage in violations of its public procurement regulations. Sahara Reporters is being unduly sensational. In alleging the use of fronts, it obviously escaped the blog to interrogate if anybody that intends to use fronts would actually put down their names or offices next to the contracts. Even for a blog that claims that it is not bound by the journalistic obligation to verify its assertions, this is unfortunate.

“KDSG investigations revealed that many of the names on the list have no connection to the drainage works. Many of the names are of non-existent people with surnames attached to them to justify the use of fronts by the same officials of KAPWA whose services have been dispensed with. Others that exist have denied knowledge of the contracts and the names of those they were supposed to have sponsored. The dismissed AGM who was the architect of the madness was unable to produce evidence linking the so-called contracts to most of the names of existing and living persons