Findings have revealed how the Nigerian government in one day paid the sum of N29,892,201 to a contractor for the construction of the first phase of the slaughterhouse at the State House Veterinary in Abuja.
Data obtained from GovSpend.ng, an analytics platform run by BudgIT Foundation to give Nigerians access to information on daily spending at all levels of government in the country, revealed that the Nigerian government paid the money to Tramasco Nigeria Limited in 2023.
According to the payment details, the State House Headquarters on June 22, 2023, paid the sum of N24,076,825 to Tramasco Nigeria Limited for construction of Phase one of the State House slaughterhouse.
Also on the June 22, 2023, an additional payment of N5,815,376 was made to Tramasco Nigeria Limited for the construction of the same Phase one of the State House slaughterhouse.
The data further revealed that on June 24, 2023, the State House Headquarters paid the sum of N7,216,831.25 to Sabhadu Global Concepts Limited for the supply of books to the State House Library.
However, a search on the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) website showed that though Tramasco Nigeria Limited was registered on February 12, 2008, with a registration No: RC – 730734, the company’s status is inactive, with the CAC instruction, “Visit CAC and update your status”.
Similarly, information on CAC showed that Sabhadu Global Concepts Limited was registered on March 12, 2012, with a registration No: RC – 1014939 but the company’s status is also inactive, with instruction from the CAC saying, “Visit CAC and update your status.”
The CAC explained that the indicated status of a registered entity on its Public Search portal as “ACTIVE” or “INACTIVE” is a function of the entity’s annual returns filing.
According to the Commission, where a registered entity has not filed its annual returns up to date, the status of the entity is indicated as ‘INACTIVE”.
It stated that when a registered entity has filed its annual returns up to date, the status of the entity is indicated as “ACTIVE”.
On the other hand, the Public Procurement law provides that before a company or an entity could qualify to be awarded a contract, it must have its returns filed up to date with the government.
However, with the status of the two companies being inactive as indicated by the CAC, the Nigerian government paid a total of N37,109,032.25 to companies that have violated the federal laws=