BUSINESS DAY
The sum of N1.66bn has been discovered to have been spent by the Federal Ministry of Transportation in 2021 without adherence to standard procedures and due processes.
This formed part of findings contained in an annual report of the Auditor-General for the Federation on Non-compliance/internal control weakness in Mnistries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the period January to December 31, 2021, published recently.
The audit at the Federal Ministry of Transportation for the period under review comprised issues of diversion of public funds, payment of ghost workers, payment for services not rendered among others, totalling a financial cost of N1,663,276,505. Chibuike Amaechi was minister of transport in 2021.
Unjustified Spending
The audit report found out that over N1bn was used for personnel audit without relevant records and documents.
According to the findings, N968 million was used for salaries and wages, while social contribution totalling N1.089 billion was paid for audit of personnel, contravening Paragraph 110 of the Financial Regulations, 2009, and Section 85 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
The report noted that all efforts made towards obtaining relevant records and documents such as nominal roll, monthly payslips, variation control file, list of newly employed staff, establishment returns of each department, among others, to facilitate the audit examination of personnel cost proved fruitless.
The report attributed the anomalies to weaknesses in the internal control system at the ministry, resulting in payment to ghost workers and diversion of public funds.
The auditor-general recommended that the permanent secretary prove to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly how N1,089,848,974.00 was used by providing relevant records and documents, or face sanctions relating to irregular payment, failure to manage public funds effectively and gross misconduct as specified in paragraphs 3106, 3115 and 3129 of the Financial Regulations, 2009.
The report also uncovered N93.million used as payments for training programmes without relevant supporting documents.
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