Governor Ademola Adeleke has said the public should expect a bombshell from the white paper implementation committee on the alleged contract infractions by officials of his predecessor, Gboyega Oyetola.
The committee is headed by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi.
Speaking on a radio programme on Wednesday, monitored by Tribune, the spokesperson to the governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, said many former APC state officials took contracts for companies on which they still serve as directors while in government.
Rasheed was reacting to allegations by the All Progressives Congress in the state that the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Alhaji Kazeem Akinleye, executed a TETFUND contract at the Osun State University.
But Rasheed said the Governor’s Chief of Staff neither violated the law nor breached the ethical code.
According to the spokesperson, “Osun people will be shocked by the time the White Paper Implementation Committee rolled out the names of Commissioners, Special Advisers and top officials of the Oyetola administration who breached the procurement laws and violated various ethical question”.
The indicted officials, according to Rasheed, not only got the jobs for the companies on which they are directors but also participated in the decision-making process for the award of the jobs.
He said forensic investigation has unveiled the actual directors of the companies which confirmed the report of the original contract review committee that top Commissioners got juicy contracts for their companies.
Calling on the public to compare the two scenarios, Rasheed said the Chief of Staff resigned from the alleged company before he assumed office as Chief of Staff and was never part of the Contract decision-making process of TETFUND and Osun State University, thereby fulfilling both legal and ethical preconditions as required by the Procurement laws.
For the APC scenario, their officials remained as directors while serving the state, awarded the contracts to themselves and also sat at meetings where award decisions were taken, he stated on the radio station.
He noted that allegations against the Chief of Staff were designed to distract Governor Ademola Adeleke from the ongoing accelerated delivery of good governance in Osun State, informing that “very soon, the public will read shocking details of how former officials abused their office in contract administration.”
On why the matter is just being raised, the Spokesperson said Governor Adeleke is never in support of probing past administrations as it distracts from doing the job of service delivery, hence most review reports were downplayed to allow him focus on his own programme.
“The persistence of the opposition in promoting fake news has placed a responsibility on the state government to open the can of worms on how the former administration looted the treasury through abuse of procurement laws,” Rasheed said.
He added, “We have decided to let the cat out of the bag by letting the public read what happened on the various contracts awarded under the former administration. The White Paper committee will soon address the public.”
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE