The Lagos State House Assembly on Tuesday raised a nine-man ad-hoc committee to investigate the purchase of 820 buses valued at N45 billion by the administration of the immediate past Governor of the State, Akinwunmi Ambode.
Chaired by Fatai Mojeed, the committee has Gbolahan Yishawu; Bisi Yusuff; Afinni Olanrewaju; Rasheed Makinde; Yinka Ogundimu; Mojisola Meranda; Temitope Adewale and Kehinde Joseph as members.
The House of Assembly said it has become imperative to investigate the acquisition of 820 buses out of the 5,000 buses proposed by the former governor for mass transit in the state.
According the legislature, the former governor went ahead to buy the buses despite objection by the Assembly.
In a motion titled: Lagos State House of Assembly Motion Number 2, Yishawu stated that the House noted that at the Executive/Legislative parley held at Golden Tulip in FESTAC in September 2017, Ambode informed the House that 5,000 buses would be bought by the government.
He added that the executive proposed to spend N17 billion to purchase the buses in the 2017 budget, saying however, the House declined approval as it did not follow stipulated terms.
The lawmaker said: “In the 2018 and 2019 budgets, the state government proposed N24 billion and N7 billion respectively, but these were not approved.
“The state government still went ahead to import 820 buses at N7 billion, and out of them 520 are still awaiting clearance at the ports.
“The buses were later bought without approval by the state House of Assembly.”
Yishawu added that the House was worried that 520 buses were still awaiting clearance from the bonded warehouse at the Port and that they were purchased with taxpayers’ money without approval.
He submitted that the House should set up an ad hoc pane to investigate all the issues relating to the purchase of the buses.
Besides, he urged the House to investigate the cost of the purchase to prevent a re-ocurrence.
Speaker Mudashiru Obasa pointed out that the House needed to prevent waste because the deed had already been done.
He said: “The vehicles are in the ports and they have been there for almost a year. The state will continue to suffer if we allow the buses to stay in the ports.”
Obasa noted that contrary to the practice in the state, Ambode’s administration delved into operation, when “we should be the regulators of transporters, the state should not operate buses.
“How much are we giving the buses out should be addressed. We should get the buses to the roads and safe the state from further wastes”, he said.
The Speaker directed the committee to invite the Accountant-General of the State, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and any other official involved in the purchase to give testimonies on the purchase.
He also told the panel to invite the current Commissioner for Finance, the Managing Director of LAMATA and others.
Yinka Ogundimu said: “We need to investigate every transaction that has to do with the procurement of the buses. It would become a bad precedent if we don’t do anything about this. A huge amount of money still needed to be paid on the purchase of these buses. Whoever has erred should be brought to book.”
Saka Solaja said: “In awarding a contract there should be two parties. The contractor should note if the company is viable and if it is provided for in the budget. Yet, the contractors went ahead to take up the contract.
“We need to investigate the issue and whoever is culpable should refund money to the government. By getting ISPO without budgetary approval should attract punishment.”
In his view, Rotimi Olowo (Shomolu I) stressed that the provision of the 1999 Constitution in Section 120 has been flouted with the purchase.
Olowo noted: “They told us that they wanted to start a pilot project, yet they went ahead with the project. Can we still wait for the vehicles to be in the port and attract demurrage.
“The incumbent governor of the state should ask for waivers from the Federal Government so that we could retrieve the vehicles from the ports.”
