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Behind every public expenditure is a trail of documents meant to explain who received the money, what it was paid for and the authority under which it was released. At the Federal University, Gashua, Yobe State, documents obtained by SecretsReporters have revealed financial irregularities totalling ₦2,776,106,347.61 across three findings for the period under review, when Professor Maimuna Waziri was Vice-Chancellor.
The findings cover payments of ₦1,893,802,100.91 without relevant supporting documents, ₦875,615,013.70 paid to contractors on the strength of a conditional advance payment guarantee, and ₦6,689,233.00 spent on a foreign trip for which no evidence of approval was found on record.
The largest of the three findings concerns ₦1,893,802,100.91 in payments made without relevant supporting documents. The payments contravened Paragraph 603(i) of the Financial Regulations 2009, which requires payment vouchers to contain full particulars of the services rendered and supporting records, including local purchase orders, invoices and timesheets, sufficient to enable independent verification of the payments.
Additionally, ₦875,615,013.70 was paid to contractors on the strength of only a conditional advance payment guarantee. The payment arrangement was contrary to Paragraph 2.0 of Treasury Circular No. TRY/A2 & B2/2019/OAGF/CAD/025/V.III/358, dated 8 July 2019, which requires an unconditional bank guarantee or an acceptable insurance bond before payments under government contracts are released.
Similarly, Section 36 of the Public Procurement Act 2007 addresses the requirement for a performance guarantee before the release of a mobilisation fee under a public procurement contract.
Lastly, ₦6,689,233.00 was paid for a foreign trip without evidence of approval on record. The expenditure is a separate issue requiring accountability.
In recommendation, Professor Waziri was instructed to account for each of the identified sums before the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly. The recommendations also called for the recovery and remittance of the amounts to the Treasury.
Furthermore, evidence of the remittances was to be forwarded to the appropriate authorities as part of the accountability measures outlined in the recommendations.
Source: …Secretsreporters