The Senate is disturbed over the loss of N478 million meant for Zungeru power project in Aso Savings and Loans Plc, as indicated in the 2015 Audit report forwarded to its committee on public accounts by the Office of Auditor General of the Federation.
Also, the upper legislative chamber, through same committee, upheld the 2015 indictment report of OAuGF against the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on mismanagement of about N180 million.
The N478million deposit as scooped from the reports by Blueprint, was meant for payment of compensations to displaced persons under the Zungeru power project, for the purpose of securing housing facilities for staffers of the Ministry of Power.
Query from the OAuGF on the N480million loss reads: “The examination of various bank statements belonging to the Ministry of Power revealed that the sum of N2 billion was deposited into a savings and loans account since December, 2013.
“The Ministry should provide the backing documents to enable us carry out proper audit checks on the operation of this account, particularly, the interest accrued on the deposit.”
But in a written response, the power ministry said the money was deposited in Aso Savings and Loans Plc under the Zungeru Power Project.
Ministry’s defence
Further findings revealed that the ministry wrote the Accountant General of the Federation in a letter dated 20th December, 2012 for the approval and the Office of the Accountant General gave the approval on 14th of January, 2013 to open the Account.
The Account number used for depositing the N2billion was 0013465399.
Admittedly, the ministry in its response, said in 2015 the bank failed to honour mandates issued for collection of balance of N478million .
The response reads: “The Ministry has collected about N1.6 billion from the Bank remaining the balance of N478 million to be paid.
“The balance of N478 million in the bank is expected to accommodate M &S Alagbe , N11 million, Ministry of Lands and Housing Niger state, N378.8 million and Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), N88 million.”
The committee frowned at the lethargy of the ministry in collecting the N478million balance and the accruing interests.
Specifically, the committee chairman, Senator Mathew Uroghide (PDP Edo South), in his remarks, demanded for the bank statement and how much the ministry made from the transaction.
NYSC
The committee also frowned at N180million indictment report slammed on management of NYSC by 2015 Audit report from the OAuGF.
The decision to uphold the report followed the refusal of the corps’ management to honour invitations sent to it for clarification appearance on the report.
“Series of invitations extended by this committee to the management of NYSC for defence of the indictment report, were ignored,” said the committee chair.
The query reads: “Examination of sampled payment vouchers of NYSC revealed that vouchers totalling N65, 414,535.54 (Sixty-five million, four hundred and fourteen thousand, five hundred and thirty-five naira, fifty-four kobo) were not supported with relevant documents such as receipts, invoice, etc.
“This is contrary to Financial Regulation 603 which states that “all vouchers shall contain all particulars of each service, such as dates, numbers, quantities, distances, rates, as to enable them to be checked without reference to any other documents.
“They are to be supported by relevant documents such as local purchase orders, invoice, special letters of authority, time sheets etc
“The Director-General has been requested to explain why payments should be made without relevant supporting documents and also forward the supporting documents to my office; otherwise the expenditure will not be accepted as a legitimate charge to public funds.
“It was observed that some state offices of NYSC made several payments totalling N115, 778,287.28million, but the associated payment vouchers were not presented for examination.
“It was not possible to confirm whether the payments were in public interest. Refusal to make the payment vouchers available for audit examination is an indication that the expenditures may not have been in the interest of the public.”
