Before the coordinated attacks on Kano, Kano State, and Bauchi in Bauchi State, by Boko Haram and the replacement of Hafiz Ringim with Mohammed Dikko Abubakar as the Inspector General of Police, the issue that dominated the news was the audit contract awarded to a firm of chartered accountants, Sada & Co. Chartered Accountants by the Federal Government.
Sada & Co. Chartered Accountants was awarded the contract for the audit of the Oil and Gas sector for a fee of N226.613 million.
But on suspicion that the contract could be another job for the boys based on the quality of information on the company’s website, the media raised the alarm.
The quality of grammar and spelling errors on the website called attention to the company and the need to dig into its record.
This led The Eagle Online to attempt to locate the office to at least speak with any of its officials.
However, the company could not be located at the addresses given on both the website of the company, which was hurriedly brought down after the media outrage, and on the Google search page.
The two addresses were 42 and 46, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, Lagos.
No such companies existed in both buildings (the pictures of the buildings are above).
However, after the story was published, some people have faulted the move by the Eagle Online to locate the office of the company, saying that having an office in Lagos should not be the criteria for awarding contracts to a company.
But here is the moral issue the company has to deal with: If it was eminently qualified for the contract, which some of those who responded to the story have said it does, why did it have to present “fake” addresses on its website and on the Google search page.
The handling of the website and the false claim of an office in Lagos have raised doubts about the competence of the company, the “real” reasons why it was given the job and such other queries.
A company that wants to be taken serious and not to be seen as a part of the rot that has pervaded our national life and which is still at an alarming level, must not just claim to be living above board but must be seen to be doing so.
Since the issue became a matter of public interest, the owners of the company, like most of our rulers, have kept mute, further raising suspicions that the company either does not exist or that it was hurriedly created by some smart people solely for the purpose of getting the contract in question.
The Corporate Affairs Commission has not helped matters in this regard.
A successful search could not be conducted on the existence and ownership of the company because the RC number could not be gotten for this purpose.
The excuse was that without the RC number, the search will only be limited to the companies that have records in its computerised data, whereas, according to the staff of the commission in both Lagos and Abuja, there are so many companies whose records have not been entered into the data base.
Despite this, it is pertinent to point out that in the Nigeria of our dream that we are trying to build, starting with the consciousness that transparency and accountability in every facet of our life has become a must, those behind Sada & Co, should realise that the media is not out to witch hunt them but to say very clearly that the era of business as usual is over.
Government at all level, organisations and individuals must be prepared to give account for every kobo of our commonwealth that is entrusted to them or being given to them for the purpose of achieving goals that are beneficial to all.
And in the process of doing this, all righteousness, including claims of having offices in a particular location and such other matters that are considered mundane by those who will want to defend the government, organisation or individual, must be fulfilled.
And that is the moral dilemma of Sada & Co. as it proceeds to execute the contract of auditing the Oil and Gas sector.
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