The committee launched investigations into the huge contracts sum yesterday with revelations of how government officials awarded contracts with extra amount of over N2 billions in excess of what the exact construction figures bided by construction firms to complete the jobs.

And one of the first issues that came up had to with the differences between the amounts quoted in the bids and the amount that the contract was awarded.

The committee however, sought to know why the contract awarded for N257 billion was inflated by N2 billion.

The committee also met with the Debt Management Office (DMO).

They discovered that Julius Berger Plc, which won the bidding for the expansion of the expressway leading to the city's airport, requested in its tender to be paid N58.6 billion and N48 billion for the two lots of the contract.

But the Companies, represented by their Managing Directors, denied knowledge of the variations, describing them as human errors that needed to be rectified.

Members of the House Adhoc committee probing the contracts, pressed officials of both companies to explain the discrepancies which are stated in their contract award letters, on a dramatic opening day of the inquiries.

The Managing Director of Berger Plc, Mr. Wolfgang Goetsch in his defence, replied that the variation was a "mathematical error" which he had never noticed.

The FCTA also awarded the contract for the construction of a part of the Outer Northern Expressway (ONEX) through Kubwa, to Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company at N68.89 billion, an amount higher than what the company bided for, according to testimonies at yesterday's investigative hearings conducted by the House of Representatives.

The representative of Dantata and Sawoe Construction Company in his response, feigned ignorance, but accepted that the over N2 billion difference might have been a case of computing error.

It was the first public hearing of the ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives on road contracts.

Its mandate is to evaluate the N257 million road contracts and ensure that due process was followed in the award of the contracts.

The questioning was occasioned by the finding by the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee, after a member of the House of Representatives, Dino Melaye last month drew its attention to the outrageous costs of contract awards by the FCT administration at amounts higher than what the contractors asked.

The contracts were awarded in 2009 to the two companies, and to the Chinese Construction Company, which was absent at the hearings.

Julius Berger received two lots of the airport road project, while the other companies drew one lot each for the Kubwa Road ONEX project