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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives, yesterday, resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to probe Ministries, Departments and Agencies( MDAs) over illegal charges imposed on contractors handling government projects.
The committee is expected to report back to the House within 12 weeks for further legislative actions.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Kpam Sokpo, on need to investigate alleged unlawful administrative charges and levies imposed by MDAs in the award of contracts.
Sokpo, in his motion, noted that as part of the process for the award of government contracts for projects, contractors are legally required to pay Value Added Tax( VAT) and Withholding Tax.
However, the lawmaker contended that apart from these lawful taxes, MDAs allegedly impose arbitrary and unlawful administrative charges, levies ranging from 5 to 25 per cent of contract sum on contractors.
According to him, “such charges by the MDAs are unlawful, fraudulent and clear cases of corrupt practices as such monies when collected, are not remitted to government coffers.”
The lawmaker argued that “when contractors are compelled to pay such advance fees, there is the high tendency of not keeping to the terms of the contract as such projects are often abandoned or poorly executed.”
Sokpo stated that this was worrisome, especially as the “most critical component of the annual budget is the capital and recurrent expenditure estimates approved by the National Assembly for the provision of critical infrastructure and to cater for national priority projects.
