Senate Probes Perm Sec Over N460m Payment For Uncompleted Projects

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Nebolisa Anako, is under probe of the   Senate Committee on Public Accounts   over alleged payment of N460million to contractors for uncompleted projects in Ekiti State.
The payment marks 100 percent payment of the contracts sum for the project which till date is still below 70% completion which was captured   in the  reports of the Auditor General of the Federation, AuGF’s submitted to the  Senate.
Consequent upon this, the Chairman of the  Senate Committee,   Senator Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South)  queried the permanent secretary.
The query reads: “A constituency project contract amounting to N51 million for the construction of roads, parking lots, drainage at Ureje Dam in Ado Ekiti showed various part of the contract totaling N25.5 million were paid for but not executed.
“The ministry should ensure the contractor either completed the work or refund the money collected and forward the recovery particulars for audit verification.”
But, the permanent secretary in his written response said, “the contractor has completed 60 percent and promised to hand over the projects on or before 30th June 2017 to the minis vide the minutes of the meeting held with the contractors handling the contracts on the 20th April.”
However, the contractor is yet to complete the project as at the time the permanent secretary of the ministry appeared before the committee on Tuesday, December, 09 2020.
Chairman of the committee expressed dissatisfaction with the way the contract was handled by the ministry  and ordered the permanent secretary to go and get the contractor to  complete the project .
His words “he was paid, he did not do half of the job. Go and get him to complete that job until this man does this job,  you will never have respite, whether it is constituency project or not   is irrelevant.”
Also in another query which reads, “A visit to a contract amounting to N132 million for construction of Ureje Dam waterfront scheme in Ado-Ekiti of Ekiti State revealed that some parts of the contract amounting to N5 million were paid for but the project not completed.
“A visit to a contract amounting to N138 million for the construction of event centre/resturant at Ureje Dam waterfront scheme in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State which was fully paid showed that the contract was not completed.
“The ministry should cause the contractor to complete the contract valued at N19million were paid for but not executed.”
The permanent secretary however was unable to convince the committee that the  contract was completed and the lawmakers sustained the query.
In another query, the Senate queried the ministry’s payment of N17million for  another uncompleted project for the construction of fence at Exekuna cultural museum in Nchi-Onu, Amuzu Ezza Local Government in Ebonyi State.
The committee said, “The contract amounting to N6million was not constructed. As a result some parts of the fence were also broken in the site.
“Audit inspection visit to a contract amounting to N122million for construction of fence, gate House at Ureje Dam  waterfront scheme in Ado Ekiti of Ekiti State, revealed that painting and external electrical works being part of the contract were not completed.
“The ministry should cause the contractor to complete the work or refund the appropriate amount involved.”

By: Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi