Indications emerged yesterday that the House of Representatives may jettison its investigation of allegations that ZTE, a company incorporated in China, took a whopping $470 million and supplied the Federal Government with fake Close Circuit Television cameras, which allegedly packed up within six months of installation.Sunday Mirror learnt from a member of one of the Committees that were mandated to look into the allegation that it is “unlikely that the report would be considered this session, because investigations are far from conclusive”.
He however, did not say if the said investigative exercise would be concluded when the House returns from its mid-session recess in September.
The Spokesman of the House, Hon. Zakari Muhammed(PDP-Kwara), at a briefing of House correspondents last week Thursday, told Sunday Mirror that “He was yet to be briefed on the situation of the probe”, but however promised that he would “let you (Sunday Mirror) know as soon as I am briefed by the Chairman of the Joint Committee”.
Earlier on November 30, 2012, the Chairman of the investigating committees, Hon. Ibrahim Shehu of the Committee on Information and Communication Technology, said “in the course of the joint committees’ investigation, all players involved were invited and the committees paid visits to all the locations. The committee is presently compiling its report and, in a couple of weeks, the report will be ready and subsequently presented at plenary.”
But nearly two years after they were empanelled, no report is yet to be presented to the House.
It will be recalled that the House of Representatives, had on Wednesday, December 8, 2011, mandated its committees on Public Procurement, Aids, Loans and Debt Management, and Information Technology to investigate the contract of $470 million awarded to a Chinese company, ZTE Corporation for the installation of closed circuit television, CCTV, cameras in Abuja, after adoption of a motion from Hon. Hassan Saleh (Benue).
The House in adopting the motion, had expressed worry that the quality of materials being used by the Chinese company were alleged to be substandard and that the poles being used for the CCTV cameras are different from the ones used by same company in countries like Ghana, Senegal, Morroco and Malaysia.
The House noted that the project was conceived by the government to enable security agencies to deal with national security challenges and emergency situations in the country, but the project in its opinion turned out a failure.
According to the mover of the motion, “The National Public Security Communication System is based in a system known as Global Trunking Architecture which provides telecommunication and it could be used to monitor elections and verification of election results as well as disaster management and control.”
The lawmaker expressed concern at the insistence by the Chinese company that “the contractual details of the transaction with the Federal Government should not be made public and it is currently shrouded in secrecy which is a clear.
The lawmaker was worried that the Presidency, to worsen matters, was looking out for a foreign loan to finance projects without recourse to the National Assembly considering that the country had exited the Paris Club of debtors a few years ago.
He said, “The Federal Government has made a 15 per cent down payment, which amounted to N70,500,000 of the total contract sum, and has signed a Sovereign Guarantee to the tune of $399,500,000 to enable ZTE source for loan from the Chinese government for the project.”
Source: National Mirror
