Over 300 Companies Indicted N7Billion Recovered

The statement, issued by Garba Shehu, a spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari, said over N7 Billion had been recovered so far from the 300 indicted companies and individuals.

Another N41 Billion is to be refunded by the indicted companies while further investigation by the EFCC has been ordered to determine whether another N75 Billion should be recovered from some of the companies for unexecuted or partially executed contracts.

The statement said the committee further established that one of the indicted companies, Societe D’Equipment International, was overpaid to the tune of 7.9 Million Euros and $7.09 Million.

The committee, which is different from the committee that is investigating the Defence Arms and Equipment Procurement, discovered that there was a total disregard of key provisions of the Public Procurement Act in the award of contracts by Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) ONSA, Mr. Shehu said.

“Several contractors were apparently over paid, while others were given full upfront payments contrary to their contract terms and agreements in force.

“There was also evidence of payments to individuals and companies by ONSA without any contractual agreement or evidence of jobs executed. The committee further discovered that some companies failed to meet up their tax obligations for contracts executed.

“The Committee has made attempts and succeeded in recovering some of the funds from these individuals and organizations amounting to Three Billion, Five Hundred and Thirty Seven Million, Five Hundred and forty Nine Thousand, Two Hundred and Twenty Three Naira and Four Kobo (N3, 537,549,223.04), Eight Million US Dollars ($8,000,000.00) and houses worth Five Hundred and Twelve Million Naira (512,000,000.00) from 32 companies.

The Committee also established that some individuals and companies received monies without evidence of contractual agreements or jobs done. The amount received by these individuals was Seven Billion One Hundred and Four Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty Five Thousand Naira only (N7, 104,925,000.00).

“In a similar vein, the Committee revealed that some companies that failed to execute contracts or did so partially were to make refunds. The total amount to be refunded is Nineteen Billion, Eight Hundred and Ninety Six Million, five Hundred and Thirty Nine Thousand, One Hundred and Twenty-five Naira and thirty kobo (N19, 896,539,125.20) only, Forty Three Million Seven Hundred and Seventy One Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty Three US Dollars and Seventy-Three Cents ($43,771,433.73) and 2 houses in Abuja worth Two Hundred and Sixty Million Naira (N260, 000,000.00).

“The Committee also revealed that 15 companies were awarded contracts that require further investigation to ascertain the status of their contracts.