By Njide Ezeonyejiaku 

The Executive Chairman of Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB, Dr. Vera Nkiru Nwadinobi has debunked the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the award of contracts to contractors who did not bid for the UBEC-ASUBEB contracts for the 2019, 2020, and 2021 UBE grants for Anambra State.

Addressing a press conference held at the ASUBEB Headquarters, Awka, Dr. Nwadinobi noted that the said contracts were duly advertised according to the Public Procurement Act (PPA), in which over 1000 bidders responded.

"We advertised for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 grants and we received over 1000 bids for barely 200 jobs", she said.

According to the ASUBEB Boss, all the bids received went through technical evaluation publicly and those  found competent enough were recommended for the next stage of the procurement process, which she said is the financial bid opening.

In her words, "the financial bid opening was also done publicly after which the most responsive bids were selected for award of contracts".

She noted with dismay that while the process was on, a staff of the Board, Mr. Uchenna Ezeani, tried to hijack and scuttle the process.

She explained that the said Mr. Ezeani was the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, PRS, before the present Board was appointed by Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, adding that he occupied three strategic positions in the Board, including Director, PRS; Director, Procurement; and Director, Physical Planning for several years.

"He was virtually in charge of contracts and awarded contracts to whomsoever he wished in the immediate past administration, that he was investigated by the EFCC for abuse of office where he was accused of awarding contracts to companies he personally registered and to his cronies".

"It is our refusal of his attempt to hijack the process as usual that resulted to his writing petitions and using the social media to malign the Board", she added.

Continuing, Dr. Nwadinobi noted that it was to streamline the non existent offices that Mr. Ezeani arrogated to himself that the Board got a waiver from the State Governor, directing the Head of Service to post Procurement Officers to the Board, in the persons of Mr. Attajadumi Simon and Mr. Echezona Chinedu to mann the procurement Unit, in order to ensure that due process is followed in the award of contracts.

In response to the questions from the press, the ASUBEB Chairman described the rumours making round that ASUBEB was under investigation as falsehood, while the said Mr. Uchenna Ezeani has been transferred out of the Board, and the said N6.7 Billion, being the grants from UBEC and the counterpart funding from the State government is still intact, as disbursement will start when the contractors commence work.