Idowu Samuel, Abuja
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
WITH about a month to the kick-off of the 2009 FIFA Under 17 World Cup to be hosted by Nigeria, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) is embroiled in an allegation of irregular award of contracts that may threaten the competition’s smooth organization.
Findings by the Nigerian Tribune showed that some top officials of the LOC are at loggerheads over the manner contracts for the hosting of the football competition are being handled.
According to investigations, the lack of due process in the award of nearly all the contracts is the cause of the crisis among some LOC officials.
A top notcher on the committee was accused of shutting out qualified contractors in the bidding process, thus preventing them from taking contracts from the LOC. The affected LOC official allegedly frustrated open competitive bid for the contracts so far awarded.
The interest by Nigeria to host the football competition had suffered initial setback when President Umaru Yar’Adua refused to approve the huge sum of money prepared by the LOC as estimate to organize the global youth football tournament.
President Yar’Adua had reportedly declined interest in hosting the competition when he was presented with the initial budget put at over N30 billion budget, which, reports said, he considered outrageous.
It, however, took intense persuasion and lobbying from high quarters before the president eventually agreed to the plan by Nigeria to host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, but not until the budget for the hosting had been drastically reduced.
Investigations revealed also that the country could end up exposing its corrupt tendencies to the world during the competition, owing to the allegation, amid suspicion, that most of the equipment and facilities being imported were of low quality.
It was also learnt that few weeks to the kick-off of the tournament, about 25 chattered flights being expected from different European countries to bring sporting equipment and other consignments into the country were yet to process their papers for the trip to Nigeria.
Among the consignments being expected are media equipment, security gadgets and other accessories meant to complement works at the stadium already approved by FIFA for the competition.
It was gathered that though FIFA had appointed Hyundai as the official sponsors of the competition and the company was expected to supply all the vehicles needed for the event, the officials still went ahead to buy exquisite vehicles - Jeeps and Camry - for top government officials and other highly placed persons. A top government official was said to have been presented with three Prado Jeeps while others got one each.
The shoddy preparations by Nigeria for the tournament had given FIFA sleepless nights as the officials had to travel to Nigeria several times to access sporting facilities for the hosting of the soccer fiesta.
Nigerian Tribune learnt authoritatively that although some of the chattered flights may start arriving in Nigeria as from next week, the process of clearing imported consignments may suffer some hitches as the LOC is yet to appoint good clearing agent, among those that had shown interest.
Some concerned LOC officials were said to be angry that, so far, it was only a clearing agent owned by a prominent front that had been approved to do the clearing, while the door had been shut against other qualified ones on the order of one of the leaders of the LOC.
Intervention made by the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and the Minister of Sports, Alhaji Sani Ndanusa, in the matter had doused the tension but the instruction by the vice president that more contractors should participate in the award of contracts had been ignored by the LOC officials.
Meanwhile, some of the big guns of the LOC were alleged to have bought houses in Dubai, where they had temporarily relocated as part of security measure to keep them out of the trouble that was likely to emanate from the unsettled issues of the contract awards.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that the aggrieved parties in the LOC had resolved to petition the appropriate anti-graft agencies to draw their attention to the contracts so far awarded by the LOC without due process.
Efforts made to get some of the officials to react to the allegations were unsuccessful. Several phone calls made to them were not answered.
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