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The Coalition Against Malpractices and Corruption, COMAC, said it has writen the federal ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, demanding the explanations over alleged procurement breaches in the ministry.
For this season, the coalition is calling on the Tinubu administration to swing into action and begin the probe of the ministry.
The coalition, made up of popular groups such as the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, CEDEHUR, the Association of Media Practitioners in Oil and Gas Producing Areas, AMEPROGAS, and the Arewa Youth Alliance for Progress and Development.
The Coalition made this known on Tuesday in a press conference in Abuja.
Addressing the press, Convener of the Coalition, Odey Otunu, said it has prepared its petitions to be sent to anti-corruption agencies such as the Economic Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Otunu explained that a formal request under the Freedom of Information, FOI, Act, 2011, has been sent to the Ministry, seeking clarification on the subject matter.
They said that actions of the ministry contravenes constitutional provisions.
Otunu said the FOI request also sought details of procurement records, bid documents, payment vouchers, company registration verifications, and tax compliance certificates relating to contract awards within the ministry.
“Our FOI request followed investigations which uncovered alleged violations of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, in the award of multi-billion naira contracts to non-existent or newly registered companies, as well as those that were not tax compliant,” Otunu said.
Otunu claimed that some firms that benefited from the ministry’s contracts were “either not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, or lacked any operational track record.”
He said some contracts were awarded to companies whose registered business objectives were not aligned with the nature of the work they were engaged to perform, or lacked tax clearance records.
He said the evidence would be contained in petitions it plans to submit to relevant oversight institutions, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, and the national assembly.
“We are briefing the press today because the ministry has refused to provide the requested information on how taxpayers’ money is being spent,” Otunu said.
Otunu said the coalition will stage peaceful protests and advocacy visits to key institutions if its demands are unmet.
“In furtherance of our democratic rights, we shall organise peaceful marches to compel transparency and accountability. If the ministry fails to comply, we will approach the judiciary to obtain an order compelling it to release the requested information under the Freedom of Information Act,” he said.
He said the campaign was driven by public interest and aimed at strengthening transparency in the management of public funds.
FOI: Coalition writes aviation ministry, demands explanation on alleged procurement breaches
