Naijaonpoint
Four days ago, SecretsReporters had earlier exposed how the University of Lagos (UNILAG) kept N7.83 billion in contracts off Nigeria’s public procurement transparency portal and failed to remit N3.69 billion in collected revenue to the Treasury in a report titled “UNILAG VC Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola Hid N7.8 Billion Worth of Contracts From Nigeria’s Open Contracting Portal; Failed To Remit N3.89 Billion IGR To Gov’t Purse“. Today, this newspaper turns to the contract irregularities inside UNILAG’s 2024 financial year audit, a pattern of split contracts, related-company awards, and poorly executed work that forms the second-largest share of the university’s N22.1 billion in total findings.
The largest single figure in this instalment is N7,026,857,603.98 tied to irregularities in the execution of contract agreements in contracted work that auditors found was not carried out the way the underlying agreements required. A further N727,441,614.90 involved a contract deliberately split into smaller pieces specifically to circumvent procurement due process; the well-documented tactic of breaking up a large contract to dodge the additional scrutiny bigger, properly classified awards attract.
N444,612,904.90 was paid for a contract poorly executed despite the payment going through in full. N257,863,135.05 was paid with no evidence of appropriate approvals ever being obtained. N226,755,017.50 involved further irregularities in how a separate contract was awarded. N144,577,494.46 in unaccounted payments were made directly by university management. And N113,489,988.51 was paid for a contract the audit flagged as doubtful.
Separately, auditors found contracts awarded to related companies, entities whose ownership or control connections to the university or its officials were not properly disclosed, a direct conflict-of-interest risk that strikes at the heart of fair, arm’s-length public procurement.
Professor Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola has led UNILAG since November 2022, spanning the entirety of the audited year. Every contract examined in this instalment, the split award, the poorly executed work, the payments without approval, the related-company deal was processed under her administration’s watch.
The Public Procurement Act 2007 prohibits splitting contracts to circumvent due process which was violated by N727.44 million structured this way. The same Act requires disclosed, arm’s-length dealing in every contract award again violated by the awards to related companies. The Financial Regulations 2009 require documented approval before any payment proceeds also violated by N257.86 million paid without it. And basic contract administration standards require verified execution before final payment that was violated by N7.03 billion in contract agreements not properly carried out and N444.61 million in poorly executed work paid for regardless.
Source: …Secretsreporters