Reps Worry Over FG-China’s $475m Deal

The House of Representatives has commenced investigation of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, and the Government of China on an optic fiber project worth $475m.

At plenary on Thursday, the House resolved to mandate its Committee on Information and Communication Technology to investigate the status of implementation of Phase 1 of the project, including a forensic audit on relevant transactions to execute the National Information Communications Technology Infrastructure Backbone Projects 1 and 2.

The House also urged Galaxy Backbone Limited and the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to immediately halt all certificates of completion and payments respectively, in lieu of the project pending the completion of the investigation by the committee.