Minister Fashola’s Former Permanent Secretary Wanted Over Mismanagement Of N2.5billion Contracts

Alhaji Mohammed Bukar, the immediate past Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, who worked under Minister Babatunde Fashola, has been questioned over the mismanagement of nearly N2.5 billion in road contracts during his tenure.

According to a government report obtained by SaharaReporters, the PS is accused of mismanaging funds while in charge of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing at the time.

Fashola’s former PS is accused of awarding contracts beyond his threshold, according to the annual report of the Auditor-General of the Federation on the accounts of the Federation of Nigeria for the year ending December 31, 2018, obtained by SaharaReporters.

One of them was the “N2.5 billion emergency repairs of the Talabu Bridge along the Tegina-Mokwa Road in Niger State.”

The report indicting Fashola’s former PS partly reads, “Issue one; Contract for the purchase of project monitoring vehicles without due process – N343,833,338.00. Section 24(1) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 states that “except as provided by this Act, all procurements of goods and works by all procuring entities shall be conducted by open competitive bidding.

“Audit observed that the sum of N343,833,338 was paid for the purchase of 36 project monitoring vehicles without following due process. Further examination revealed that the 36 vehicles were not received into store as there was no documents to show such delivery.

“The Permanent Secretary is required to account for the sum of N343,833,338.00. All affected officials should be sanctioned in line with Financial Regulation 3106.

“Issue two: The Public Procurement Act 2007 Section 16 states “Subject to any exemption allowed by this Act, all public procurement shall be conducted: (a) subject to the prior review thresholds as may from time to time beset by the Bureau pursuant to Section 7(1) (a)-(b).

“The audit observed that N2,500,000,000 contract was awarded by the Ministry in violation of Bureau of public procurements revised threshold for service wide application which requires approval from the Federal Executive Council.

“The Ministry awarded the contract without Federal Executive Council approval in violation of chapter 16 (I) of the public procurement act 2007.

“The Permanent Secretary is required to account for the sum of N289,461,035.44 paid in breach of Public Procurement act 2007, Section 16(2). Sanctions in line with Financial Regulation 3106 should apply to all affected officials.”

On Thursday, SaharaReporters reported that the civil worker whose assets were retrieved for N1 billion by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was a Permanent Secretary in the same Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.

In May, EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa told the Senate Committee on Finance that the agency had recovered almost N1 billion from a civil servant’s bank account.

“For the time being, it is best for us to observe and wait for your committee to finish its work so that whatever report you have and whoever your committee picks, we are ready to take it up from there,” he had stated.

“Last week, we were able to retrieve nearly N1 billion from a civil servant’s account.”

Bawa, on the other hand, declined to name the specific civil servant.

According to a source at the anti-graft agency who spoke to SaharaReporters on Thursday, the public official is a Permanent Secretary who works with Fashola.

According to the source, the civil worker the chairman was referring to is the Permanent Secretary, who works directly with Fashola.