Reps threaten to cancel PPP, concessions, invite Minister of Transport, NRC

The House of Representatives Committee investigating the Public-Private Partnership and Concessions programme has threatened to cancel all leases and concessions in the Federal Ministry of Transport.

Rep. Ademorin Kuye, Chairman, House Committee on Public Assets, made this known when the delegation from the Federal Ministry of Transport, led by the Permanent Secretary, Pius Oteh, appeared before the committee in Abuja.

He said that the PPP and concessions agreements of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) and the Railway Property Management Company Limited (RPMC) might be cancelled over non-compliance with extent laws.

Oteh, however, told the committee that the ministry has over 170 leases but was unable to provide the relevant documents as required by the lawmakers to prove whether there was compliance with the extent of the of the laws.

One of the required documents is the receipt of payment, which the lawmakers said was not attached to the documents submitted by the ministry in disregard for their request.

The committee, in its resolution, invited the Minister of Transport, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, and other relevant organisations to appear at their next sitting.

The chairman warned that the committee will not hesitate to invoke relevant constitutional provisions if any organisation fails to honour its invitation.

“As you may be aware, this committee will not hesitate to invoke the relevant constitutional provisions if any head of ministry, agency, or department fails to honour the invitation of this committee.

“We can issue an arrest warrant and direct the relevant security agencies to bring such a person here,” he said.

He noted that improper management of government assets through public-private partnerships and concessions has been one of the major challenges in infrastructure development.

It would be recalled that the House of Representatives, through its resolution in February, mandated the committee on public assets and special duties to probe public-private partnership initiatives and concession agreements across the country.

The committee noted that in spite of initiating several PPPs and concession programmes, the outcomes have been mixed, with some projects stalled and others failing to yield anticipated results.