By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Senate has asked the accounting officer of the Federal Ministry of Works to refund N692m to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The Ministry claimed the money was used for the purchase of vehicles, computer accessories, photocopying, production, and airing of a special video documentary.
The funds, the panel established, were used to execute fictitious contracts as discovered in the 2018 report of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
The AuGF report was considered by the Senate Public Accounts Committee chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, who submitted their findings for the consideration and approval of the Senate at plenary.
The report was approved and the red chamber upheld the recommendations of the Urhoghide-led panel.
The committee discovered that a contract of N343 million was awarded for the purchase of project monitoring vehicles without due process.
It also established that the vehicles were not supplied.
The Panel also observed that another contract was awarded for services and direct purchase of vehicle spare parts, computer accessories, and photocopying machine parts.
It added that another contract for designing Nigerian roads and bridges at a cost of N139m did not follow due process.
In addition, it was discovered that N210m meant for the documentary was split into N130m and N80m, which were paid into a staff account in contravention of the Financial Regulation.
The Committee sent a series of invitations to the Ministry of Works to defend the allegation raised by the Auditor General of the Federation.
The Officials of the Ministry ignored the invitations and the Committee had no option but to sustain the position of the AuGF.
The query reads, “Audit observed that the sum of N343m was paid for the purchase of 36 project monitoring vehicles without following due process.
“Further examination revealed that the 36 vehicles were not received into the store as there was no document to show such delivery.”
Another query reads, “Audit observed that advances in the sum of N139m were granted on service and direct purchase of vehicles spare part, computer accessories, Photocopying machine parts for designing of Nigerian roads and bridges. There was no store record of those items to show that they were purchased.”
The third query read, “Audit observed that N210m meant for the documentary was split into N130 million and N80m paid into a staff account contravening FR 713.
“Further examination revealed that the sum of N130m was capturing developmental projects which included other ministries like Finance, Agriculture, Transport, Petroleum Resources, Mines and Steel, and Trade and investment.
“There was no receipt or retirement particulars attached to the payment vouchers to justify the payment. The approval for the sum of N80m was made to the Director of Finance and Account which was above his approval limit.
“There was no evidence to show who the producer of the documentary was, or whether they were selected on a competitive basis. There was no evidence to show the work was done.”
The Senate subsequently ordered the accounting officer of the ministry to account for the funds and pay it back to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
