No less than 20 auditors trained in oil and gas auditing from the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) are currently working on the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
This is following a Senate resolution which called for the forensic auditing of the NNPC account to determine the allegations of missing $20 billion by the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Samuel Ukura, the auditor general of the federation (AGF), disclosed this when he appeared before the House of Representatives’ committee on public accounts to defend the 2013 and 2014 budgets.
“We had a budget of N60 million for training and we were able to train 20 officers who are presently on the filed auditing the accounts of NNPC,” he hinted.
At the hearing, Ukura also disclosed that his office had mopped up an unspent sum of N100.1 million meant for the purchase of vehicles.
He said that the contractors had failed to supply the vehicles as at December 31, 2013.
He further revealed that the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) had issued his office a ‘letter of no objection’ directing the office to award the contract for the purchase of vehicles to Innoson Motors.
“We had to mop it up since the vehicles were not supplied, and no money was paid for them”, he said.adding that the contractor failed to comply, despite being reminded through series of letters.
According to him, the office was only able to buy five units of Hilux pick up vans and one unit of Prado jeep at the cost of N49.9 million out of the initial N180 million that was earmarked for the purchase of vehicles.
On the budget performance for 2013, Ukura told the committee that the recurrent was implemented 100 percent, while the capital budget was implemented only 57.7 percent amounting to N374.157 million.
When asked about denied N200 million allegedly given to his office from the service wide votes (SWV) by the Budget Office of the Federation, he denied any knowledge of such transaction.
Addressing the issues raised, Adeola Solomon Olamilekan, chairman of the committee, commended Ukura for mopping up the unspent N100.1 million.
He, however, expressed dismay with the AGF for some mix-ups in the report he presented to the committee, and asked the AGF if he would want to resubmit his defence, which he accepted.
Consequently, Olamilekan directed the AGF to submit all vouchers and receipts of payment and contracts awarded, and re-appear before the committee next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the committee also summoned the director general of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Emeka Ezeh, to appear before it next Tuesday to shed light on the vehicle purchase issue.
Teddy NWANUNOBI,
