A former Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Obiageli Ezekwesili has faulted the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Maikanti Baru for not following due process as recommended by the Public Procurement Act in the award of contracts by the NNPC.

Ezekwesili who is a lead discussant at a roundtable to analyse the issues surrounding the October faceoff between the GMD of the NNPC and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibeh Kachikwu argues strongly that the NNPC breached the nation’s public procurement procedures.

“The approving authority of the process is not determined by the board. That is where the confusion is coming from. There is the process and then there is the completion of the process and then, the submission of the process to an approving authority,” she said.

Ezekwesili revealed that the NNPC management and the GMD’s claims that there is no power residing on the board to approve contracts is false.

“What the NNPC management and the GMD are saying is that there is no power residing in the board to approve anything that they have done all they need to do is do there process and take it to the president. They are wrong,” she said.

Ezekwesili stressed that there is no provision in the procurement law that says the President or any individual can approve such contracts.