Sambo Dasuki: a case of overpayment

The verification panel set up to probe contracts awarded between 2011 and 2015 by the Office of the National Security Adviser not only indicted over 300 companies and individuals for various infractions , it also shockingly revealed that  one of the indicted companies, Societe D’Equipment International was overpaid by $15.92 million.

The company with an office in Abuja was involved in the seizure of $5.7million by South African authorities in October 2014. The transaction, according to a South African newspaper, City Press was between Cerberus Risk Solutions, an arms broker in Cape Town, and Societe D’Equipments Internationaux, a Nigerian company in Abuja.

The committee which unearthed the overpayment is different from the committee that is investigating the Defence Arms and Equipment Procurement.

According to Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, the panel discovered that there was a total disregard of salient provisions of the Public Procurement Act in the award of contracts by ONSA.

“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 somecompanies failed to meet up their tax obligations for contracts
executed”, Garba reported.