The Federal Government has set aside N1.1 billion for creating a task force that will examine contracts that are similar to the disputed Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) signed by previous administrations.
The ministry of justice listed it in its 2022 budget proposal.
The budget item with line code – ERGP30171327 – allows for the “establishment of a federal taskforce and development of federal contracts administration system (FCAS) in Nigeria.”
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, while appearing before the Senate committee on judiciary to defend his ministry’s budget on Monday in Abuja, stated there nine other similar contracts exist.
Malami while defending the need for the task force, informed the senate committee that the P&ID contract did not go through the AGF’s office or the federal executive council (FEC) for vetting.
READ ALSO: Maina Bags 8 Years Imprisonment Over Money Laundering
“The major problem with P&ID is that the contract was never ever allowed to pass through the office of the attorney-general for vetting. So, on the account of that there are embedded in the contract clause that is inimical to the interest of the nation,” the minister said.
“Because of the fact that there is a preliminary conspiracy among the key promoters of the contract, the contract was never allowed to pass through the federal executive council, FEC for its approval, neither was it allowed to pass through the federal ministry of justice for vetting.
READ ALSO: CBN Sets N5bn Limit For Loans Under ‘100 For 100’
“The existing structures are there, but they can only act in respect of contracts that are referred to the department. We have developed need for other circulars that these are intended clauses that could be tolerated in the public interest and the interest of the nation in mind were attached.
“In respect of P&ID, there were about nine contracts that were signed at the same time in breach of due processes and procedure. They are there; they simply use the P&ID as a test case.
“If it has indeed, succeeded in taking away $10 billion out of our economy, those other existing contracts that were signed at the same time in breach could have now have been the contracts we will be faced with in terms of arbitration and associated issues.”
Malami stated that the proposed task force would evaluate the existing problematic contracts that can undermine the economy as far as the P&ID is concerned.
