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A fresh investigation has uncovered how the Federal College of Dental Technology, Enugu, under the leadership of Professor John Emaimo, spent hundreds of millions of naira on construction projects that were carried out without the required professional oversight, leaving students and staff with substandard roads and classrooms.
Documents reviewed by this platform show that the institution recorded contract irregularities totalling ₦830,000,000.00 across two separate findings for the 2023 financial year. Professor John Emaimo has served as Rector of the College since 2016, covering the entire period under review. Following the institution’s recent upgrade to a full university, he now serves as its Vice-Chancellor.
The first and most troubling finding concerns ₦550,000,000.00 paid through two vouchers for the construction of an inner road and a one-storey block of classrooms within the College. Before any Tenders Board can consider construction work of this kind, Paragraph 2925(i) of the Financial Regulations 2009 requires that Architectural, Structural, Electrical and Mechanical designs be engaged, and that a Quantity Surveyor’s Bills of Quantities be prepared.
A physical inspection of the projects found that the work had been executed through direct labour, using unqualified artisans and casual workers, with no competent professional supervision. The result, as observed on site, was defects in the completed work. Roads and classrooms meant to serve the training of dental technology students were built without the expertise such projects demand.
When confronted, the College’s management insisted that appointing consultants was optional, and that it relied instead on internally employed, registered civil engineers, architects and estate officers. That explanation did not hold. The finding remains valid until the recommendations are implemented.
The second finding involves ₦280,000,000.00 tied to a procurement contract that violated the Federal Government’s approved prior-review and monetary thresholds for service-wide procurement. This breaches Section 20(2)(e) of the Public Procurement Act 2007, which places direct responsibility on the Accounting Officer of every procuring entity to ensure that no procurement is split or reduced in value to evade the appropriate procurement method and approval level.
Paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations 2009, which covers irregular or wrong payment, applies to the shoddy construction finding. The same provision, alongside Section 20(2)(e) of the Public Procurement Act 2007, applies to the threshold-violation finding.
Source: …Secretsreporters