The Senate has ordered the Federal Ministry of Works to refund into the nation’s purse, N692 million allegedly spent on fictitious contracts as contained in the 2018 Audit report.
The report considered and sustained by the Senate through its Committee on Public Accounts discovered that a contract of N343 million was awarded for purchase of project monitoring vehicles without due process and vehicles not supplied.
Another contract was awarded for services and director purchase of vehicles spare parts, computer accessories, photocopying machine parts and designing of Nigerian roads and bridges at N139 million.
It was also alleged in the report that N210million meant for documentary was split into N130 million and N80 million and paid into a staff account which contravenes Financial Regulation.
The committee chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide said it sent series of invitations to the Ministry of Works to defend the allegations raised by the Auditor General of the Federation without response from affected officials which made the Senate to sustain the queries.
The queries read in part: “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.”
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