How Nigeria lost N2tn to assets stripping in 5yrs
This revelation was made known in the House of Representatives on Tuesday via a motion sponsored by Kehinde Agboola (PDP, Ekiti) and 7 other members. In its resolution, the House mandated its standing committees to verify assets from contracts awarded by government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The motion expressed worry over the alarming rate of wastages to the tune of N2trn due to lack of due process in the disposal of assets by certain contractors.
“Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies are not accountable for their assets or maintain adequate book keeping/ record of assets as required,” the motion stated.
It continued: “Ministries, Departments and Agencies in proposing award of contracts for capital, consultancy and supplies, make provisions for purchase of assets such as vehicles, computers, earth moving equipments and others in their Bills of Quantity.
“Those assets are usually never purchased or accounted for, in most cases the cost are deducted from final payment to contractors without any of the assets being traced, thus accounting for loses to the Federal Government of over N2tr in the last 5years.
The motion pointed out that if nothing is done corruption will continue to surge and the issue of unremitted funds will persist.
“Cognisant that if nothing is done to check the nefarious activities, corruption will remain endemic in public sector and revenue leakages will persist”
The motion prayed the House to set up an Ad Hoc Committee to verify assets from contracts awarded from 2010 to date by Federal, Ministries Department and Agencies within 12 weeks for further legislative action An amendment was later raised by James Faleke (APC, Lagos) asking that the House should instead allow respective committees in charge of the individual MDAs.
The amendment was unanimously adopted according to Order Paper.
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