The House of Representatives Committee on Nigerian Local Content Development And Monitoring has directed the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB)to provide relevant documents relating to its investments and transactions covering years of operations.
The Chairman of the Committee, Boma Goodhead, gave the order at the resumed investigation hearing into the management of resources accrued to the board over the years, in Abuja.
She said that the Board had invested in some partners without due diligence and at the detriment of the country’s economy.
While querying the Board, the Committee Chairman warned that they were serious about unraveling the expenditures of taxpayer’s money utilized by the NCDMB.
She said that the committee will not encourage wastage of funds at the expense of the nation’s economic growth and development.
“Some of the companies invested in were registered or incorporated just a few years, prior to the investments which indicates inside dealings and abuse in the entire process.”
“Several of the companies were family businesses where the ownership and Board of Directors were populated by father, mother and children only and the companies did not indicate any form of Corporate Governance compliance, especially with the applicable Corporate Governance ethics and laws operative in the country.”
“The shares allotted to NCDMB and Government was a gross under-valuation of the amount invested, relative to the value of the companies prior to the investment and/or the amount invested by the counterparties. Typical cases were Rungas Prime, Rungas Alfa, Eraskon, Atlantic Refinery, etc.”
“The due diligence carried out by consultants hired by the Board clearly reveals gross abuse of office by the Board officials responsible for the process which arose from culpable negligence as the Board’s appointed attorney on almost all the companies but especially Brass Fertilizer, Atlantic Refinery and Eraskon advised a cautionary approach to the Board’s management.”
“Funding of the requisite financial commitments of the counterparties was not in place and there was no arrangement or certainty to obtain same before the equity investment funds were released to the management of the investee-companies, thereby constraining the equity funds and endangering public funds kept under the Board’s management,” Goodhead said.
The Committee learnt that the NCDMB made equity investments in seventeen companies to the tune of a total sum of US$181,378,047.00 (One hundred and eighty-one million, three hundred and seventy-eight thousand, forty-seven United States Dollars only) and N3,602,511,523.50 (Three billion, six hundred and two million, five hundred and eleven thousand, five hundred and twenty-three Naira fifty kobo).
The Committee expressed dissatisfaction with the submissions of the Board’s former Director for Finance, Isaac Yalah and its current Director of Project Certification and Authorization, Abayomi Bamidele.
“The investments were all made in United States dollars whereas the companies operate in Nigeria and the Central Bank of Nigeria has barred operating in foreign exchange in Nigeria as it tends to Dollarize the currency and put severe pressure on the Naira.”
“The investments were made in United States dollars to cheat the Board and the entire Nigerian economy as the contributions by the investors were mainly made in naira. The Committee while dismissing the Board, however, directed it to reappear on a later date with relevant documents of all transactions and investments to aid the investigations,” the committee said.
She added that the transactions were fraudulent as the due diligence reports obtained from the Board on the transactions indicate the companies invested in, lacked legal and financial compliance capacity to benefit from the investments.
NAN