THE National Library of Nigeria (NLN) has dismissed allegations of procurement fraud, employment racketeering, and victimisation of staff raised in a petition confirmed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Despite ongoing investigations by the ICPC, a statement by Orvell Dio, Assistant Director of Information and Public Relations, described the allegations as a smear campaign orchestrated by disgruntled individuals seeking to discredit the National Librarian, Chinwe Veronica Anunobi.
The response followed The ICIR report, which revealed that the ICPC is probing the agency after petitions from staff unions accused its leadership of contract inflation, abuse of procurement rules, and the sale of employment slots.
The report also detailed alleged staff victimisation, diversion of public funds, and phantom projects. It also noted how insiders said corruption and mismanagement have become entrenched, leaving staff disillusioned and afraid to speak out.
Central to the allegations was the procurement of two JAC Frison 4×4 pickup vehicles for N62.6 million in 2022, with the petitioners claiming the vehicles were bought from a supplier not listed in the BPP waiver and at an inflated cost, with a forged invoice allegedly inserted into the procurement file.
The petitioners indicated that this amount was inflated by N14 million when compared against independent market rates for identical vehicles. In the document attached to the petition, the union got an invoice for the two vehicles from the same vendor to be N48.3million, including VAT. Each car was sold for N22,500,000 and VAT of 7.5 per cent on the two vehicles for N3.3 million.
Responding to this, the library insisted that three companies, Elizade Nigeria Ltd, Lanre Shittu Motors, and Globe Motors, were approved by the BPP, and all were invited to bid.
It said Elizade’s quotation for JAC pickups was cheaper than Lanre Shittu’s Hilux, prompting the agency to purchase the two vehicles instead of one while staying within its ₦63.5 million budget.
The petitioners had stated that while the contract was awarded at N62,649,710, the actual market cost for the two vehicles from the same vendors, including 7.5 per cent VAT, was N48.3 million, a difference of N14.35 million.
But Dio initially said the cost of the project was estimated to include all the statutory deductions which, according to him, amount to about 13 per cent of the total contract sum.
However, going by the document attached to the petition, after statutory deductions of about 13 per cent (N8.14 million) by the Office of the Accountant-General, the contractor would have received approximately N54.51 million. This still leaves a gap of N6.21 million between the petitioners claimed cost and the net amount paid to the supplier.
The petition further accused the leadership of the library of job racketeering, with employment slots allegedly sold for as much as N2 million, often to individuals from the South-East, contrary to federal character rules.
This, The ICIR noted, was dismissed in the report.
It has, however, further maintained that appointments were screened and approved by the Federal Character Commission, adding that no job slots were sold on its behalf.
On payments into staff personal accounts, the library claimed the funds paid to a senior staff, I.O. Kalu, was a ‘non-personal advance’ noting that the funds were duly retired after the campaign.
Dio had initially justified the payment, saying the reason for making payments into staff accounts was that some projects are best executed by in-house staff and do not need to be outsourced to contractors.
The agency also denied claims of phantom projects, stressing that over 6,200 materials have already been digitised and uploaded to its public repository, while its library software is a subscription-based version, not free software as alleged.
This was again contrary to what insiders said, as they claimed that the digitisation of weak and rare materials was done by staff of the library.
Despite widespread claims by petitioners and insiders who spoke to The ICIR, the Library insisted that no staff member was being victimised.
Recall that The ICIR reported that the ICPC confirmed four victims of this alleged harassment, noting that it has communicated the cases to the Ministry of Education for possible protection of the whistleblowers.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M