NAHCON transparent on E-wristband procurement – Namaska

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria has restated that it abides by the Procurement Act in the award of contract for the production of Electronic-Wristband for intending pilgrims.
Malam Shehu Namaska, the Procurement Officer in the commission, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja in reaction to allegation that the award of E-wristband contract was not transparent.
Namaska insisted that the process of procuring the device was transparent because the commission placed an advertisement for the tender over a stipulated period as provided by the procurement regulations.
Namaska said NAHCON wrote to the Corporate Affairs Commission, the Industrial Training Fund, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the National Pension Commission and other relevant agencies to notify them of the companies that were bidding for the contract.
He said: “Subsequently, National Pension Commission replied NAHCON earlier than other agencies and cleared 17 companies out of the 30 companies that bided for the contract.
“We waited longer than necessary to get the response of other agencies but we got only that of the National Pension Commission and proceeded to the next stage.
“The bid was opened on May 23 in the presence of all bidders, most of who came with their documents on the closing date to the venue.
“Also present at the bid opening were representatives of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply management of Nigeria and Centre for Transparency Watch, among others.
“The companies that won the contracts were Emerging Platform Limited, ADS Communications Link Limited, Center Base Limited and Trans-Secure Limited.”
Namaska also said the commission held several meetings with the representatives of the state pilgrims’ boards and included them in the committee that awarded the contracts to the deserving companies.
He, therefore, discredited allegations of sharp practices or favouritism in the award of the contract, insisting that such allegations were mischievous.
In a separate interview, Alhaji Yusuf Ibrahim, the Commissioner for Policy, Personnel, Management and Finance in NAHCON, said the commission followed due process in all its activities.
Ibrahim said: “I made sure that due diligence was followed before money was released to contractors for the production of the device.
“We met with the representatives of states pilgrims’ welfare boards and bargained the cost price of procuring the electronic wristband to ensure transparency and accountability.
“We agreed to procure the device at the sum of N8,274 each for all the 2016 intending pilgrims.”
Ibrahim said the commission received directive from the Presidency to produce the device to track Nigerians pilgrims during the hajj.
“A letter came from the Presidency asking us to emulate Algeria to produce a device that will track and identify Nigerians pilgrims during hajj operation in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Also, Malam Hashiru Daura, the Director of ICT in the commission, said the device was useful in tracking the location and identifying Nigerian pilgrims during their stay in Saudi Arabia.
Daura said the device was different from the one that would be provided by the Saudi Arabia Government for all pilgrims from across the world.
“That of Saudi will be to identify pilgrims’ countries, while that of NAHCON will carry all data of each pilgrim and link it with the NAHCON,” he said.
NAN recalls that NAHCON decided to introduce electronic wristband for pilgrims after the unfortunate incident of stampede, which claimed the lives of many Nigerians during the 2015 hajj.
NAN.