Published 28th Jan, 2022

By Daniel Ojukwu

Adolphus Aghughu, Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF), has revealed that the Nigeria Police Force awarded and paid for unexecuted contracts worth over N3 billion.

In an audit report submitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly on September 15, 2021, the Office of the AuGF (OAuGF) said over N1.1 billion was spent on 10 contracts awarded to three companies owned by one individual.

The report covers audits done on government ministries, agencies and departments in 2019.

It was titled “Auditor-General’s Report on Non-compliance/Internal Control Weakness Issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the Year ended December 31, 2019”.

Aghughu faulted the police’s internal control system for the anomalies.

WEAK INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEM

“Ten contracts totalling N1.1 billion were awarded to a single proprietor in the name of different companies,” the report states.

“In the companies’ profiles, the contact phone numbers and email addresses of the three companies were the same and the three companies did not disclose their relationship by the fundamental principles of procurement as required by extant regulation.”

According to the audit document, the report violates Section 16 (8) of the Public Procurement Act 2007, which states that “whenever it is established by a procuring entity or the Bureau that any or a combination of the situations set out exist, a bidder may have its bid or tender excluded from any particular procurement proceedings if:…(g) “the bidder fails to submit a statement regarding its dominating or subsidiary relationships concerning other parties to the proceedings and persons acting on behalf of the procuring entity participating in the same proceeding or who remains insubordinate relationship with other participants to the proceedings”.

The report highlights risks, such as “award of contract to the incompetent contractor, payments for jobs not executed and diversion of public fund”.

The auditor general requested that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) “furnish” reasons contracts were awarded to companies owned by the same persons. It further asked the IGP to “account for the sum of 1,136,715,200.00 (One billion, one hundred and thirty-six million, seven hundred and fifteen thousand, two hundred naira)”.

The IGP is also required to “remit the sum of N1.1 billion to the treasury” and “forward evidence of remittance to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly”.

Otherwise, the report recommends “sanctions relating to the irregular award of contract and punishment for contravening any of the offences in the Public Procurement Act and paragraphs 3117 and 3126 of the Financial Regulations respectively”.

PAYMENT VIOLATIONS

In 2019, the Nigeria Police paid the sum of N924.9 million on contracts that were not executed in 2019.

This action violates paragraph 708 of the Financial Regulations which states that “on no account should payment be made for services not yet performed or for goods not yet supplied”.

The amount, according to the report, was paid for 11 contracts involving “construction of three units of Gunshot Spotter System, supply of fifty units of Ballistic Roller Trolley and twenty units of Ballistic Mobile Surveillance House in some selected Commands and Formations”.

The final payments were made in March 2019 without evidence of execution, the auditor general said, “but documents for the completion of the projects were not presented for audit examination”.

Likewise, the items claimed to have been “constructed or supplied at the Force Headquarters, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit and Police Mobile Force (PMF) unit as specified in the award letters revealed that the contracts were not executed as at the time of physical verification of the purported items in June 2020.”

In another instance, the audit report states that N613.5 million, representing 100 percent total payment, was made to two contractors before the execution of the contracts.

“Six contracts totalling N613.5 million were awarded to two contractors on 17 January 2019 for procurement of ballistic roller trolley, construction of gunshot spotter and ballistic mobile surveillance house,” the report states.

But “there was no evidence of execution, as relevant documents, such as invoice, SRV, SIV, Ledger entry, etc. were neither presented to the team nor the items found in the location indicated in the vouchers”.

This act contravened the provision of paragraph 2933 (i) of the financial regulations which requires payment of mobilization fee not to exceed 15 percent of the contract price. Also, the two contractors did not take part in the pre-qualification process, while tax clearance certificates were not presented for examination, the auditor general said.

The report further observed that there was a contract for the supply of 20 units of ballistic mobile surveillance in Borno State at a contract sum of N249.9 billion, which was beyond the approval threshold of both the force and its supervising ministry.

Contract for supplies above N100 million requires approval of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria (FEC), the report stated.

POLICE VIOLATED APPROVAL THRESHOLD ON PROCUREMENT CONTRACT

The audit report accused the police of approving contracts above N100 million without the approval of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria (FEC).

It read, “two contracts totalling N500.3 million were approved by the Nigeria Police Force.” The contracts of such magnitude, the audit report states, “should have passed through the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval,” as they were above the approval threshold of both the Nigeria Police Force Tenders Board and that of its parent ministry.

The risks in the likely breach of the regulation, according to the report, are “misappropriation of public funds and/or diversion of public funds”.

On January 14, 2016, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation issued a directive restraining government agencies and ministries from directly approving contracts for supplies above N100 million until approved by FEC.

Aghughu asked the IGP to provide reasons contracts that were above the approval threshold of boards of both the police headquarters and the Ministry of Police Affairs were not forwarded to FEC for approval. The police will also account for how the N500.3 million was spent.

EGBUNIKE’S FAKE TRANSIT CAMPS

Prior to the submission of this report in September, FIJ, in August, 2021, revealed how Joseph Egbunike, Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), joined other police chiefs to approve more than N1 billion for sham police transit camps project in Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Katsina and Kano State while serving as Commissioner of Police in charge of budget and finance at the Nigeria Police Force headquarters.

Documents exclusively obtained by FIJ showed, for instance, that the two police camps, meant for Gbajimba, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, and Falgore Forest, Kano, were awarded to Karakas Development and Properties Nigeria Ltd. between 2018 and 2019 and were to be delivered within 14 weeks from the date of the contract agreement.

However, FIJ’s visit to the project locations revealed that nothing or little had been done – three years later.

Initially, the police transit camps were a project of the Federal Ministry of Interior. The ministry had, in 2016, contracted Kakaras Nigeria Ltd. to build transit camps in Katsina, Bauchi and Plateau State for about N245million each. Each camp was to have a Rapid Response Squad (RRS) unit and a police station. The buildings were also to be furnished and electrified.

FIJ learnt that the force headquarters took charge of the N736 million project following agitations that a police project should remain with the police. Although the Nigeria Police did not complete the project despite the release of funds, it earmarked about N175million each for similar ones in Benue and Kano in its 2018 and 2019 budgets.

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