The Senate has queried the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Culture, Nebolisa Anako, over the payment of N460 million to contractors without completing the projects.
The payment of N460 million to contractors indicated 100 per cent payment of contracts sum in 2015, the report of the Auditor General of the Federation said.
The query was issued by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Senator Mathew Uhroghide, following the 2015 audited report submitted to it by the Office of Auditor General of Federation.
The query reads: “A constituency project contract amounting to N51 million for the construction of roads, parking lots, drainage at Ureje Dam in Ado Ekiti showed various part of the contract totaling N25.5 million were paid for, but not executed.
“The Ministry should ensure the contractor either completed the work or refund the money collected and forward the recovery particulars for audit verification.”
But the Permanent Secretary in his written response said: “The contractor has completed 60 per cent and promised to hand over the projects on or before 30th June 2017 to the Ministry vide the minutes of the meeting held with the contractors handling the contracts on the 20th April.”
However, the contractor was yet to complete the project as at the time the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry appeared before the Committee on Tuesday.
The Chairman of the committee expressed dissatisfaction with the way the contract was handled by the Ministry and ordered the Permanent Secretary to go and get the contractor to complete the job.
Urhoghide said: “He was paid.
“He did not do half of the job.
“Go and get him to complete that job.
“Until this man does this job, you will never have respite, whether it is constituency project, it is irrelevant.”
The Permanent Secretary was also taken up over another query, which reads: “A visit to a contact amounting to N132 million for construction of Ureje Dam waterfront scheme in Ado-Ekiti of Ekiti State, revealed that some parts of the contract amounting to N5 million were paid for but not completed.
“A visit to a contract amounting to N138 million for the construction of Event centre/Resturant at Ureje Dam waterfront scheme in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State which was fully paid showed that the contract was not completed.
“The Ministry should cause the contractor to complete the contract valued at N19 million paid for but not executed.”
The Permanent Secretary however was unable to convince the Committee that the contract was completed and the lawmakers sustained the query.
In another query, the Senate queried the Ministry’s payment of N17 million for uncompleted project for the construction of fence at Exekuna Cultural Museum in Nchi-Onu, Amuzu Ezza Local Government Area in Ebonyi State.
The Committee said: The contract amounting to N6 million was not constructed. As a result all over the fence, some parts were also broken in the site.
“Audit inspection visit to a contract amounting to N122 million for construction of fence, gate House at Ureje Dam waterfront scheme in Ado Ekiti of Ekiti State, revealed that painting and external electrical works being part of the contract were not completed.
“The Ministry should cause the contractor to complete the work or refund the appropriate amount involved.”