The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Engr. Mustapha Maihaja has revealed that over N1.5 billion suspicious contracts were awarded in the agency before his assumption of office.

Maihaja made the revelation on Wednesday when he appeared before the Hon. Ali Isa – led ad hoc investigative panel of the House of Representatives on the activities of NEMA.

He said he inherited some rot in the agency and was doing his best to correct it, adding that the ₦1.6 billion contracts for the supply of relief materials to flood victims in 16 states of the federation in the last one year were in compliance with the Public Procurement Act as against what obtained in the past.

His words: “When I came on board in late April 2017, I met ₦4.6 million in our coffers and liability of ₦1.5 billion and our monthly allocation of ₦500 million cannot go a long way in procuring these materials.

“This was also the time when the international agencies announced the scaling down of their funding by 80 percent. That was the situation on ground when I came on board.

“Before I came, contracts were paid for without proper documentation and that is why ₦1.5 billion is unpaid till date because there was no certificate to prove that.

“A memo was just submitted that due diligence process be instituted and that is what we are doing. We now have Maintenance and Operation Units and we would make sure we implement as approved.

“There was no Human Resources, no Verification Unit and this applied to everything across board, all we are doing is to put things in place.”

Maihaja maintained that due diligence was strictly followed by the agency under his management after he realized that the system he met on ground was flawed on procurement as well as in other administrative matters.

Aside from the House Committee accusing NEMA of breaching due diligence in the award of the ₦1.6 billion contracts, it also alleged that the DG commenced the distribution of relief materials six months after the funds were released while also engaging companies that had tax issues.