House of Representatives is expected to commence investigation into the sum of N1.054 billion paid by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for an aircraft, after 10 years later.

According to the 2020 Audit Report, the sum of N1,054,222,576 is yet to take delivery of an aircraft contract awarded to an Israeli based company.

In its 2020 audit report submitted by the oAuGF to the House Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Hon. Bamidele Salam on the 30th November, 2023, the sum of N1,054,222,576 was paid to the Israeli company in 2010 for the procurement of the aircraft, but yet to be delivered as at the time the audit exercise was carried out in March, 2020.

According to the audit report, also there was no evidence that the deposit paid had been refunded by the Israeli firm, hence recommended that the money should be recovered.

Meanwhile, NEMA in its response to the Audit query, said: “the matter is in Court for the recovery of the amount deposited and judgement had been delivered in favour of NEMA”.

The oAuGF also queried NEMA for failing to deduct and remit about N19.2 million as Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Taxes (WHT) from payments made in respect of supplies of emergency relief materials and other related services rendered to the Agency, even though the VAT and WHT ought to have been deducted from the contractor’s invoice in accordance with NEMA policy.

In the same vein, NEMA reportedly failed to account for about N99.42 million out of the N560,235,145.50 granted to officers of the Agency as non-personal advances in 2018, while another N47,974,375.87 out of N715,316,976.10 granted to officers of the Agency as non-personal advances in 2019 were also not retired.

The OAuGF also accused NEMA of failing to distribute 26,106 units of 50kg bags of rice worth N673.076 million, out of the 135,000 bags of rice donated by the Chinese government as intervention support for IDPs in the North East and kept in the Agency’s warehouse since October, 2017.

It said the 26,106 bags of rice were allegedly left to expire in NEMA warehouse as at the time of audit was carried out in April, 2020.

In addition, OAuGF alleged that NEMA awarded a contract for the supply of 160,000 units of 50kg bags of rice at the cost of N2.4 billion in 2018, while some bags of 25kg rice valued at N73,709,041.20 were left in the warehouse as at April, 2020 to expire.

According to the report: “These bags of rice were destroyed by pests and rodents as a result of failure of the Agency to distribute them to the intended beneficiaries (the IDPs).”

The OAuGF also reported that NEMA also failed to distribute relief materials valued at N113.676 million which were left to either expire or were damaged.

It said the items which include food items and other relief materials such as toiletries, mosquito nets, bags of cements, etc. had outlived their useful lives and were no longer good for human consumption haven been procured for more than three years before the time of the audit visit in 2020.

The OAuGF also reported that the sum of N96,467,673.76 was paid to a Consultant between 2014 and 2017 to acquire some assets for the construction of the National Emergency Management Agency’s Zonal Offices in Enugu, Lagos and Kaduna.

Items covered by the Contractor include: three project vehicles valued at N30 million, two demountable partitions for Enugu and Lagos project sites, one Diperk 250 KVA Generator for Enugu Project site; One Diperk 200 KVA Generator for Lagos Project site and One Diperk 250 KVA Generator for Kaduna Project site.

It said; “There was no evidence that the items in (ii) above were procured neither were there records to show that they were handed over to the Agency since the termination of the contract in October, 2019, and on enquiry, the Zonal Coordinators in the three States claimed not to be aware of the above listed assets, as they never saw them on site.”

It attributed anomalies discovered to weaknesses in the internal contro! system at the National Emergency Management Agency, leading to loss of government funds and diversion of public funds

It also recommended that the money involved be recovered and refunded to government treasury, while appropriate sanctions should be imposed on the agency in line with extant laws and financial regulations.

While responding to the audit queries, NEMA’s Head of Information Unit, Mr. Manzo Ezekiel said the process of recovering the N1.054 billion from the contractor is ongoing.

He said: “as the DG NEMA has responded, there is valid court judgment on recovery of the money paid. It involves non-Nigerians and may require the supports of both Nigerian and the other Governments to recover the fund. The process to recover the fund is still ongoing.

“The second issue of relief items being left to rot, I am sure it is about the rice donated by the Chinese Government. It was under a former DG of the Agency. There was some circumstances that led to delay in clearing of the items from the port. After the clearance, some of the rice were discovered to have become bad. However, those that still good were distributed to the target beneficiaries,” he noted. (Nigerian Tribune)

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