Members of the Senate Public Accounts Committee expressed shock on Thursday when the report of the Auditor General for the Federation revealed that officials of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources spent N116m to buy biros, letterhead and toners in one year.
The breakdown of the expenditure showed that the ministry
spent N14.5m to purchase Schneider biros, N46m to print the ministry’s
letterhead and N56m to procure toner for its photocopy machines.
The AuGF stated this in his 2015 audit report currently
being scrutinised by the Senate committee led by Senator Mathew Urhoghide.
The query by the Office of the AuGF reads, “The contract for
the supply of Schneider biros worth N14.5m was split into smaller packages of
less than N5m each and was awarded to four different companies in order to
circumvent the permanent secretary’s approval threshold of N5m.
“Similarly, the contract for the printing of the ministry’s
letterhead worth N46m was also split and awarded to 11 different contractors.
“Also, the contract for the supply of toners worth N56m was
split and awarded to seven different contractors. The permanent secretary has
been requested to explain this contravention of the Public Procurement Act
2007.”
The Chairman of SPAC asked the representative of the
Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Godwin Akubo, to respond to the query by the
AuGF.
The ministry, in its response, said, “The action of the
ministry was a quick response to the needs of the various departments in the
Ministry of Petroleum Resources. These awards followed normal rules and
procedures.
“The contracts were not split. They were awarded to the
various contractors at different times when items were needed.
“The sum of N46.6m used for printing of letterhead followed
due process and the large sum of money is explained by the volume of the
produced for most of departments.”
Dissatisfied with the defence of the permanent secretary of
the ministry, the chairman of the committee sustained the query.
He asked the committee secretariat to document the money
spent and ask for the refund from the officers involved in the ministry.
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