SOME Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have expressed worry over the preference of foreign companies to local ones in the awards of contract, especially in the oil and gas sector.

They made their submissions at a news conference in Abuja on Friday.

Mr Moses Siasia, Chairman, Nigerian Young Professionals Forum, (NYPF), said the continuous preference for foreign companies was instigating corruption and undermining local content laws.

Siasia noted that the development had caused an increase in youth unemployment, which had also led to capital flight with thousands of jobs being created for foreigners with Nigerian resources.

He said that some of the companies were engaging in the act of bypassing due process and disregarding national interest for their corporate and selfish gains thereby sabotaging the nation’s economy.

He, therefore, called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other relevant agencies to intensify efforts to beam their search lights on the award of contracts in the oil and gas sector.

Also, Mr Hamzat Lawal, the Chief Executive, Connected Developemnt (CODE), noted that there were lots of skilled Nigerians that could handle contracts of such nature but were ignored due to corruption.

Lawal stressed the need for government at all levels to have confidence on local content, saying this is the only way to promote talents of Nigerians.

He added that the CSOs would mobilise other interest groups to submit a detailed petition to the EFCC and the National Assembly on Aug. 28 to tackle the problems.

“In June 2013, NNPC/Total awarded a contract to build $3.8 billion Egina FPSO to Samsung Heavy Industries despite that Hyundai Heavy Industry was recommended by Total for the project for the lowest bidder.

“The contract to Samsung Company had collected hundreds of millions of variations of 20 per cent of content value, with no local content in it. But Samsung Heavy Industries which is currently attempting to advocate for a new variation will be stopped.

“Over the past five years, there have been investigations by several government agencies like EFCC, DSS and even the National Assembly with attempt to unravel the irregular manner by which Samsung was able to win the contract,” he alleged.

He alleged that Samsung had paid bribes in the region of $50 million to win the contract, while calling on the EFCC to investigate the awards of contract to avoid a replay of it.

He, however, warned against diversion of funds, inflation of contracts and bribery of officials at the detriment of Nigerians, who were denied jobs and basic means of livelihood as a result of gross criminality in the awards of contract.

Lawal, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari led administration to look into this allegation to make an example of Samsung case. (NAN)

– Aug. 17, 2018 @ 17:19 GMT |