Former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Temisan Omatseye has told the Federal High Court that he didn’t violate the procurement act.
Omatseye is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on charges bordering on bid rigging. EFCC alleged that he gave a contract of N129 million to a fake company.
While testifying, he said “My lord, I didn’t rig any bidding process while I was the Director-General of NIMASA. Every bidding process was handled by the Procurement Department. I only signed what was brought to me for approval. In fact, my Lord, that is why the Procurement Act was created.
“It separated the duties of the Director-General from those of the Director of Procurement. I never interfered with the process. If I did, I would be going against the Procurement Act.”
Omatseye further explained that the Procurement Act allows the agency to add value added tax (VAT), procurement tax, interest tax and others.
He said “That is how we arrived at N129million, though we didn’t purchase the said generating set,” he said, adding that the contract was cancelled.
“Having received it from the registry department, I would then minute it to the necessary office which now worked on it. But my lord, the document before me here has none from that department. Even their stamp is not on any of the documents before me here in court.”
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