THE Senate has uncovered how officials of Ministry of Works got involved in the purchase of vehicles, computer accessories, photocopying production and airing of special video documentary to the tune of N692 million without documents to back up the process.
The discovery of the contracts were uncovered in the 2018 report of Auditor General of the Federation which was also considered by the
Senator Matthew Urhoghide, PDP, Edo South led Senate Committee on Public Accounts.
Following the recommendations of the Committee, the Senate then asked the Permanent Secretary to immediately return the money to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
In the report, the committee said, it was discovered that a contract of N343 million was awarded for purchase of project monitoring vehicles without due process and vehicles were not supplied.
It said that another contract was awarded for services and director purchase of vehicles' spare parts, computer accessories, photocopying machine parts and for designing of Nigerian roads and bridges at N139 million.
In addition, it was discovered that N210 meant for documentary was split into N130 million and N80 million paid into a staff account which contravenes Financial Regulation.
Before it came to a conclusion, the Committee had sent series of invitations to the Ministry of Works to defend the allegation raised by the Auditor General of the Federation, but they ignored the invitations and the Committee had no other option, than to sustain the position of the Auditor General.
The Senate therefore upheld the recommendation of the Committee on the matter when the report was submitted for consideration.
The query read, "Audit observed that the sum of N343 million 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 read thus, "audit observed that advances in the sum of N139 million 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 reads thus , "audit observed that N210 meant for documentary was split into N130 million and N80 million paid into a staff account contravening FR 713.
"Further examination revealed that the sum of N130 million 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 N80 million 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 actually done."
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