A new audit report has indicted the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) of inflating contract and payment of the sum of N6.93 billion without relevant approvals.

The report, the 2022 Auditor General for the Federation report on non-compliance/internal control weaknesses in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), submitted to the National Assembly, discovered that the sum of N11.65 billion was paid to a construction company on August 11, 2020, for the construction of the National Assembly Service Commission office complex with a completion period of 24 months.

The auditors discovered that an upward contract review of N6.93 billion, which constitutes more than 50 per cent of the initial contract sum, was awarded on November 29, 2023. The review was for the conversion of the roof garden to office space.

Paragraph 2 of the Establishment Circular with Ref. no. SGF/OP/I/S.3/VIII/124, dated August 25, 2009, states that all contracts which require variations are to be submitted to the Bureau of Public Procurement for review and issuance of necessary due process certificate of “No objection” to facilitate their approvals by the appropriate tenders board.

It noted that no bill of quantity for the upward review was presented for audit examination, the bill of quantity presented to the auditors for the first contract amounting to N11.65 billion was not priced, and relevant procurement documents such as the Commission’s needs assessment leading to the award, newspaper advertisements, bidding process, contract agreement, bidders’ quotations and minutes of tender board’s meetings, Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval, Bureau of Public Procurement’s certificate of no objection, were not presented for audit.

The report attributed the above anomalies to weaknesses in the internal control system at the National Assembly Service Commission.

Following the failure of the management of the Commission to respond to the audit queries, the Auditor General recommended that the Chairman of the Commission should account to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly for the N11.65 billion for awarding the contract without due process, and N6.93 billion being inflated contract costs, recover and remit the N6.93 billion to the treasury, forward evidence of remittance to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly, otherwise sanctions relating to inflation of contract and unauthorised variation of contract prescribed in paragraphs 3102 and 3103 of the financial regulations (2009) should apply.

The audit report also discovered under-remittance of N1.47 trillion of internally generated revenue to the consolidated revenue fund (CRF) by seven ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Of that amount, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had the highest amount of N1.45 trillion, while the National Eye Centre, Kaduna, had the least unremitted IGR of N1.09 million.

According to the report, another N1.85 billion internally generated revenue of 18 MDAs was not remitted to the CRF during the period. The Federal University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, accounts for the highest figure of N578,957,098.08, while the Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny, Rivers State, had the least amount of N1.55 million.