The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation has flagged at least N3.62bn in financial irregularities at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria, Abuja, including N2.77bn in unremitted tender fees, questionable contract payments and purchases of store items without evidence of delivery.

The findings were contained in the Auditor-General’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance, covering the period from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2023. Our correspondent analysed details of the recently released report on Monday.

The report also uncovered missing financial records, under-remittance of taxes and payments for consultancy services without evidence that the services were rendered.

It further identified expenditure charged to accounts designated for constituency projects.

The nine quantified findings in the available extracts amounted to approximately N3.62bn. The figure excludes findings for which no monetary value was specified, as well as any incomplete entries in the extracted document.

The largest amount involved N2.77bn generated from the sale of bid documents and tender fees, which the audit report said was not remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as required by government regulations.

According to the report, “the sum of N2,771,731,464.25, being proceeds from the sale of bid documents and tender fees during the bidding process, was not remitted to the CRF, as required by extant regulations. There was no evidence to support bid purchase transactions through Remita, as relevant documents were not provided for audit.”

The auditors also reported that there was no evidence to support the bid-purchase transactions processed through Remita, as the relevant documents were not provided for examination.

The report recommended that the institute’s Director-General account to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly over the funds and ensure that the amount was recovered and remitted to the Treasury. It added that sanctions under the Financial Regulations should be imposed if the recommendations were not implemented.

Another finding involved N547.21m spent on the procurement of various store items in 11 transactions. The auditors said the institute failed to provide evidence of delivery or Store Receipt Vouchers confirming that the items had been received and recorded in the stores ledger.

The report said the absence of such records raised the risk that payments could have been made for goods that were not supplied, creating a potential avenue for the diversion of public funds. It recommended that the officials involved be held accountable and the funds recovered, although the recovery figure cited in the recommendation differs from the original payment amount and requires verification.

The audit also queried N196.59m spent on three constituency projects involving the provision of electricity transformers and solar streetlights in Ogun, Lagos and Osun states.

The projects comprised N59.2m for the supply and installation of 500kVA transformers at locations in Ogun State; N38.53m for 40 solar streetlights in communities in the Epe Federal Constituency of Lagos State; and N98.86m for 500kVA transformers in Ijebu Jesa, Osun State.

According to the report, the institute failed to provide evidence that the contractors were eligible to execute the contracts under the Bureau of Public Procurement’s interim registration process.

The auditors further reported that the projects were neither monitored nor certified by the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, as required by the relevant guidelines. They also said there was no evidence that the supplied items had been received and recorded in the institute’s stores.

The report recommended that the Director-General account for the payments, recover the funds and remit the money to the Treasury.

In another finding, the auditors queried N29.65m spent on duty tour allowances, sitting allowances and honoraria, which they said was charged to the constituency project account.

According to the report, the 13 payments were made without evidence of approval for the transfer of funds between budget heads. The institute also failed to provide inspection reports or other supporting documents to justify the duty tour allowances.

The auditors recommended that the amount be recovered, warning that sanctions could be imposed under the Financial Regulations. The institute was also found to have under-remitted N4.12m in Value Added Tax from 21 contracts valued at N136.86m.