The proposed plan by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to unveil Nigerian former international, Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh as the new Super Eagles head coach on Wednesday this week may hit the rock, as the National Sports Commission (NSC) has warned that the football federation did not conform with the Procurement Act procedure for engagement.
Answering questions from SoccerStar on telephone yesterday, an egghead of the commission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that as far the commission is concerned, the position of the head coach for the Super Eagles is still vacant, stressing that it had not received any official correspondent from the federation to the unveiling this week.
According to him: “The procedure for hiring of Sunday Oliseh supposed to pass through the Procurement Act. It was the same when the NSC employed the High Performance Directors.
“The sports commission requested for waiver for selective bidding, which enabled us to select people based on their credentials. We selected people and interviewed them in UK. The Deputy Director in charge of Procurement attended because it is a procurement exercise, which must go in accordance with the Procurement Act.
“The engagement of Oliseh is a contractual one but it is unfortunate that the federation may not have been guided accordingly. If the federation goes ahead to unveil Oliseh on Wednesday without following the due process, they would be violating the Procurement Act, they would be found liable.
“The truth is, even if they have secured the consent of a private company to pick Oliseh’s bills, the law of the land on engagement must be observed. The procedure is for the NFF to write to the commission, informing the body of their plans to engage a technical expertise like the Eagles chief coach and his assistants, specifying the terms of relationship. If they don’t want to advertisement, they can do selective bidding.
“If they must interview and hire Oliseh alone, they must apply for waiver of certificate of no objection giving reason for the decision to settle for him alone. Unveiling him on Wednesday is tantamount to violation of the due process of the procurement in accordance with Procurement Act.
