EGCDF’s chairman says he awarded N643m contracts, not N1b

Following protest from some persons, that the executives of EGCDF awarded contracts worth billions of naira for themselves and children, the Executive Chairman of Egbema and Gbaramatu Communities Development Foundation, Ambassador Jude Ebitimi Ukori has stated that the awarded contracts followed due process in line with the EGCDF’s guidelines.

In a statement signed to correct the statement made by the Egbema/Gbaramatu Concern Citizens, Ukori stated that the contracts were not up to a billion naira as claimed by the group but N643, 608,485.22 million

The statement reads: “I am highly perturbed by the ugly trend of comments making the rounds in GbaramatuVoice platform regards our recent contract awards. However, I am confident and pleased that we did followed the laid down standard practices and procedures of awarding contracts in EGCDF”.

According to him, at the beginning, EGCDF called for selection of projects by the various  communities which were scoped and designed. In addition, some were existing projects that required extension or second phase.

“Thereafter, we called for nomination of five contractors for each project by the constituent communities. The nominated contractors were made to bid among themselves. The tenders were analysed based on certain standard criteria by our Project and programmes Review Committee.

“It is a committee made up of representatives from reputable organisation and upon their analysis winners emerged for each of the projects. Based on the approval by the board we announced the result and published it on our notice board for a reasonable time.

“This was followed by issuance of award letters and acceptance by the various contractors. Consequently, the contract signing ceremony, we followed through all the necessary standard procedures”, he said.

He pointed out that it will be unfair for them to deny someone who worked closely with his community to secure job opportunity. “We have a rule that prohibit only the core leadership at board level from contracting process in order to avoid conflict of interest.

“Any established case of fraudulent practice, hand twisting of fellow community folks or short changing others can be singled out and treated as such without biased. Let us handle issues with caution. It is quiet disheartening and demotivatonal to read those slanderous and despicable comments. I owe the good people of Egbema and Gbaramatu the core values of integrity, transparency and accountability”, he added.