Ministry officials to refund N718m for improperly awarded contracts – Newstrends
Connect with us

Business

Ministry officials to refund N718m for improperly awarded contracts

Published

on

A Senate panel has revealed how the Ministry of Petroleum Resources paid N718 million through its tenders board to 11 corporate organisations for different services rendered without documents.

The discovery was as a result of the 2015 Auditor General Report submitted to the Senate Committee on Public Account chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide.

The Senate panel has recommended a refund of N718.9 million to the Federation Account by the government officials involved in the award of the contracts.

The panel’s findings showed that the contract was awarded in 2014 when the former Head of Service, Danladi Kifasi, was the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

Companies listed to have benefited from the consultancies are Amho Nigeria Ltd (Contract for consultancy service on critical stakeholders workshop on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Policy Initiative at cost of N97.9million, Mimo Industrial Ltd (Contract for Consultancy Service on Project management for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Policy Framework Development) at cost of N99.4 million, Peds Global Ventures (Contract for consultancy service on surveillance and monitoring of environmental restoration) at cost of N79.4 million, Crown-Tech Services Ltd ( Contract for consultancy service on capacity building for engineers to acquire tools surveillance and monitoring of environmental restoration) at cost of N82.2 million, DayLight Engeering Nigeria Ltd, (Contract for consultancy service on survey of oil and gas production and utilization in Nigeria) at cost of N48.1 million and Redbrick Consultants Ltd (Course fees oil and gas) at contract sum of N26.6 million.

It also revealed that about five consultancy contracts were awarded on July 14, 2014 while project on training was given out on October 17, 2014 and the payment was made in the 2015 budget.

The Auditor General of the Federation, in its report, stated that no further documents regarding payments were produced despite repeated request, adding the ministry failed to produce documents explaining and supporting the genuineness of the payments.

The query read, “An expenditure entry to N718.9 million was made in the cashbook as payment to 11 corporate bodies for different services rendered.

“Surprisingly, no further documents regarding this payment were produced for audit review despite repeated request, contrary to Financial Regulation 110 which states that ‘Auditor-General or his representative shall at all reasonable times have free access to books of accounts files, safes, security documents and other records and information relating to the account of all federal ministries /extra-ministerial offices and other arms of government or units.’

“Expenditure of this magnitude without documents explaining and supporting the genuineness of these payments cannot be accepted as legitimate charges against public funds.

“The permanent secretary has been requested to produce all documents recover and pay to treasury the sum of N718.9 million being expenditure un-accounted for and furnish recovery particulars for verification. “

The Ministry of Petroleum in its written submission presented by the Permanent Secretary, Bitrus Bako Nabasu, however said, “Relevant documents were attached to facilitate raising of payment vouchers and the total amount paid to contractors was N494.1 million.”

But the Chairman of the committee, Senator Urhoghide, and representative of Auditor General of the Federation, Eyitayo Agesin, said that documents attached to the vouchers were not enough to justify payment expenditure of that magnitude.

Meanwhile, the Senate Panel on Public Account has sustained a query of mismanagement of about N20 million against the Federal Ministry of Finance.

The lawmakers decided to sustain the query after the ministry ignored series of invitations extended to it by the Auditor General of the Federation with no response.

The chairman of the committee wondered how the ministry could be avoiding invitations to give account on the money spent, adding that the committee had sent invitations to the ministry on the issue with no response.

He said the committee had no other option than to sustain the Auditor General query against the ministry.

The query read, “A contract worth N2,477,900.00 was awarded by the ministry. It was observed that the contractor submitted a quotation before the invitation to bid for the contract was approved. This is contrary to the contract process when a bidding invitation is first sent to the contractor before the quotation. Also, the contractor’s tax clearance certificate was not provided by the contractor.

“The permanent secretary has been requested to explain these lapses.

“A sum of N2,768,760.54 which is equivalent of $13,919.00 was overpaid as estacode allowances to some staff of the ministry on foreign tours. This overpayment was done as a result of transit days which were included in their estacode allowances.

“However, this is contrary to Sections 130106 – 130108 of the Public Service Rules which stipulates that such allowances are granted to enable staff pay for lodging and feeding expenses during official hours duly approved by the approving authority.

“The permanent secretary has been requested to compel all the staff involved in the irregularity to refund the excess estacode allowances to the sub-treasury and forward the receipt to my office for confirmation.

“A total amount of N16,858,800.00 cash advances granted to some staff of the ministry between October and December, 2015 were not retired, contrary to Financial Regulation 420.

“The permanent secretary has been asked to compel the affected staff to retire the cash advances without further delay or deduct the amounts from the involved staff’s salary en-bloc and furnish my office with the retirement or deduction particulars for verification.”

Business

CBN raises commercial banks’ capital base to N500bn

Published

on

CBN raises commercial banks’ capital base to N500bn

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the minimum capital requirements for commercial, merchant and non-interest banks.

The CBN increased the capital base for commercial banks with international licences to N500 billion, while national and regional financial institutions’ capital bases were fixed at N200 billion and N50 billion, respectively.

This was announced in a statement on Thursday, noting that the increase was due to prevailing macroeconomic challenges and headwinds.

The statement signed by Haruna Mustafa, director, financial policy and regulation department at the CBN.

It said the upward review would enhance the banks’ resilience, solvency and capacity to continue to support the growth of the Nigerian economy.

Also, the CBN raised the merchant bank minimum capital requirement to N50 billion for national licence holders.

The financial regulator said the capital base for national and regional non-interest banks is N20 billion and N10 billion, respectively.

To meet the minimum capital requirements, the CBN advised banks to consider the injection of “fresh equity capital through private placements, rights issue and/or offer for subscription”.

The CBN also suggested merger and acquisition (M&A), as well as upgrade or downgrade of licences.

“The minimum capital specified above shall comprise paid-up capital and share premium only. For the avoidance of doubt, the new capital requirement shall not be based on shareholders’ funds,” it stated

Continue Reading

Business

Tinubu orders creation of single-digit tax system

Published

on

Tinubu orders creation of single-digit tax system

President Bola Tinubu has directed a creation of a single-digit tax system with a maximum of nine taxes for a company or an individual.

Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji, disclosed this in Abuja while speaking with the management team of Guinness Nigeria who paid him a visit.

A statement on Wednesday by Dare Adekanmbi, Special Adviser on Media to the FIRS chairman, quoted Adedeji as saying, “The President gave a directive that he wants a single-digit tax in the country, meaning that the maximum number of taxes we will have after the work of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms will be nine taxes.”

The statement added that the plan was aimed at having a conducive environment “created for businesses to flourish and grow the economy.”

 

Continue Reading

Business

Naira gains further against dollar

Published

on

Naira gains further against dollar

The Naira rose further in the official market on Tuesday, trading at N1,382.95 to the dollar.

According to data from the FMDQ’s official trading portal, the Naira rose by N25.09, or 1.78 percent, from the previous day’s rate of N1,408 versus the dollar.

On Tuesday, total turnover was $245.58 million, up from $222.15 million on Monday.

Meanwhile, at the Investor’s and Exporters (I&E) window, the Naira traded between N1,486 and N1,300 against the dollar.

READ ALSO:

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had, earlier on Tuesday at its 294th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), raised Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 200 basis points from 22.75 per cent to 24.75 per cent.

CBN governor Yemi Cardoso said that was meant to tackle the nation’s rising inflation.

Naira gains further against dollar

(NAN)

Continue Reading

Trending

Skip to content