The Senate has indicted the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria for non-recovery of loans and illegal award of a N4.5 billion contracts.
The decision of the Senate to indict the bank was sequel to the report of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.
The Committee, chaired by Senator Mathew Uhroghide, did this after the consideration of the 2018 report of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The breakdown of the mismanaged fund showed that the Management of the Bank irregularly awarded N3.04 billion contracts, while the bank failed to recover N70 million trapped in a defunct bank.
In addition, the bank failed to recover arrears and outstanding balances of loans trapped in a primary mortgage bank and micro finance bank, which is about N1.3 billion.
The bank also failed to recover N79 million loan granted to former Officers of the bank and non-recovery of loans granted to former Directors, which is about N65 million.
The query reads: “Contract awarded to a contractor in four places at a total sum of N3.0 billion.
“The 2nd, 3rd and 4th phases of the contract were above the approved threshold of the bank.
“It was observed that the contractor was overpaid in the sun of N118 million that resulted from irregular addition of 5 percent WHT in the bill of quantity on each of the four phases of the contract.”
The agency in its response said the contractors have been engaged on issues raised by the Auditor General and settlement agreement has been entered into for refund.
The Committee therefore ordered the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to account for sum of N3.0 billion contracts that were irregularly awarded.
Another query reads: “The sum of N1.3 billion granted as loans to six primary mortgage bank and a micro finance bank, remained outstanding as at the time of audit in 2017.”
The agency in its response said the loans have already been referred to the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation to assist in the recovery of the funds.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
