ICRC faults Lottery Commission over contract

One of the bidders had petitioned the House Joint committees alleging irregularities in the award of the contract.

The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC, on Monday faulted the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, NLRC, over the award of contract for its project, Lottery Platform As A Service, LPAAS.

Systems Numeric Limited, one of the bidders had petitioned the House Joint committees alleging irregularities in the award of the contract to e-Games Technologies Africa Inc. over the project.

Ghaji Bello, Acting Director-General of ICRC, made the allegation at an investigative hearing organised by the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Public Petitions and Special Duties.

Mr. Bello said, among other reasons, that none of the bidders submitted a proposal showing evidence of a business case or a prepared financial model in support of the project.

“There was no evidence that both companies were subjected to pre-qualification through a process of expression of interest to establish due diligence on either the local companies or their overseas associates,” he said.

He said that only one of the bidders submitted evidence of company and management structure along with registration certificates and audited financial statements for at least three years.

According to him, the request for proposal though carefully prepared, did not address some key fundamental issues such as the gap in the bid opening and closing date.

In his presentation, Athan Achonu, Chairman, Systems Numeric Ltd. alleged that e-games Technologies Africa Inc. did not meet the bid requirements for the contract.

Mr. Achonu said that his company had met all the requirements stated in the request for proposal. He alleged that e-Games breached the Request For Proposal, RFP, by submitting two bids instead of one.

In his submission, Emeka Ezeh, Director-General of the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP, said the contract was awarded to e-Games Technologies Africa for bidding lowest.

He said that while e-Games bidded $24.7 million, Numeric Systems Ltd bidded $67 million for the project.

Uzor Azubuike (PDP-Abia), the Chairman, House committee on Public Petitions, assured the parties that the committee would make its recommendations to the House accordingly.

(NAN)