Reps Probe FG’s $195.3m ‘Deep Blue’ Contract To Foreign Firm
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Navy to investigate the legality of the Deep Blue contract agreement “whether it is in line with extant laws and regulations,” and the standards of all platforms purchased for the Nigerian Navy to “determine whether they are according to specifications.”
The committee is also to determine the actual amount of money spent by the Federal Government on the Deep Blue contract and “any other matter” relating to the Deep Blue contract.
The panel is to report back within eight weeks for further legislative action.
A member of the House, Benjamin Kalu, had at the plenary on Wednesday moved a motion to call for the investigation.
The motion was titled ‘Need to Investigate the “Deep Blue” Contract to HSL International Limited.’
The President Muhammadu Buhari, had on June 11, 2021, the inauguration of the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure in Nigeria, also called the Deep Blue Project, at the ENL Terminal, Apapa Port, Lagos State.
Moving the motion, Kalu recalled that the Federal Ministry of Transportation, on July 27, 2017, and on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, entered into a contract known as the ‘Deep Blue’ contract of $195,300,000, an equivalent of N59,839,930,000, with a foreign private company, HLS International Limited, for the supply of certain security and surveillance equipment and systems.
According to him, HLSI was also to establish the Integrated National Coastal Surveillance and Waterways Protection Solutions, with command and control of infrastructure in the nation’s territorial waters.
He said in addition to the contract sum of $195,300,000, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency agreed to pay the sum of $19,530,000 to HLSI as ‘Management Training Consideration,’ while according to Appendix 4 of the agreement, both sums would be paid in monthly instalments over a period of 36 months from July 2017 to June 2020, as further payments were also made as of July 2017 to date.
Citing Section 80(3) and (4) of the Constitution, the lawmaker stated that the National Assembly is the only body constitutionally allowed to authorise any expenditure from all public funds of the Federation.
Kalu stated that the National Assembly “has neither authorised nor appropriated any monies for the Deep Blue contract or any monthly expenditure, according to the foregoing payment schedule.”
The lawmaker recalled that the 8th House investigated the Deep Blue contract, following petitions from civil groups that the contract was fraught with sharp practices. He also recalled that in March 2018, the Committee on Public Petitions recommended an outright termination of the contract for violating appropriation laws, as it was not in the national budget.
He said, “The Deep Blue contract has since its execution, attracted public outcry regarding the grave national security implications of ceding the patrol of waterways from the statutory duties of the Navy to a private foreign firm, thereby undermining national sovereignty and security, following which President Muhammadu Buhari terminated the contract in 2018.
