₦144m Fraud: Kano Federal Agricultural College Flagged Over Unvouched Payments, Unremitted Revenue, Cash Advances, Procurement Breaches

Secrets Reporters

For three years, between January 2018 and December 2020, financial transactions at the Federal College of Agricultural Produce Technology, Kano, came under review by SecretsReporters with findings showing payments made without adequate documentation, unretired cash advances, failure to remit internally generated revenue, non-insurance of government vehicles and breaches of established procurement procedures.

During the period under review, several issues involving approximately ₦144,663,029.72 were discovered with the findings cutting across payments, internally generated revenue, stores, cash advances, duty tour allowances, procurement and a construction contract executed by the College.

The first issue concerned three payments totalling ₦$2,374,700.00 made between March and December 2018 without paid vouchers. Financial Regulations 2009, paragraph 601, requires every payment to be vouched on the prescribed Treasury form, while paragraph 1705 requires payments to be subjected to 100 per cent pre-payment internal audit.

It was found that no paid vouchers existed for the three payments, and, consequently, the transactions could not have been subjected to the required pre-payment audit. With no voucher, SecretsReporters could not establish from the records presented whether the expenditure had been properly authorised or whether the underlying jobs or services had actually been executed, leading to risks of transactions such as payment of unapproved expenditure, payment for jobs not executed and diversion of public funds.

In May 2019 the college acquired two vehicles valued at ₦52,998,000.00, it was discovered that neither vehicle had been insured as at the May 2021 inspection.

Section 7(d) of the NAICOM Act 2003 and Establishment Circular SGF/OP/I/S.3/VII/981 dated 21 July 2008, require government assets of Ministries, Departments and Agencies to be insured. Failure to insure the vehicles exposed the government to avoidable loss and created a risk of their diversion for personal use.

Moreso, 40 payments totalling ₦7,141,396.00 for which the College could not produce the supporting documents required to establish the legitimacy of the expenditure were discovered, thereby violating Financial Regulations 2009 paragraph 603(1) which provides that payment vouchers must be supported by relevant documents such as local purchase orders, invoices, letters of authority, timesheets and other appropriate evidence. These 40 payments lacked the necessary supporting documentation, making it impossible to confirm that the transactions represented legitimate government expenditure.

It was discovered that for the period between 2018 and 2020 the institution generated ₦117,072,309.89. However, the college failed to remit the ₦29,268,077.47 (25 per cent) to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, in line with Financial Regulations 2009 paragraph 236 and Treasury Circular TRY/A10&B10/2016, 25 per cent of internally generated revenue is required to be remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, causing a risk of loss of revenue to government, diversion of public funds and difficulty in funding the budget.

Further more four payments totalling ₦2,170,600.00 made in 2018 and 2020 to three officers for furniture, medical and practical items, were made with no store ledger, receipt vouchers or issue vouchers existed for the items, while nothing relating to the transactions was presented for review, an action contrary to Financial Regulations 2009 paragraphs 2402(1) and 2107 requiring store purchases to be entered in a properly indexed store ledger. There was no way to establish from the documents reviewed if the items had been purchased and properly received into the College’s stores.

Between January 2018 and December 2020, the College also issued 51 non-personal cash advances totalling ₦6,338,350.00 which remained unretired as at the May 2021 inspection. Financial Regulations 2009 paragraphs 1416, 1420 and 112 require the full recovery or retirement of cash advances.

Five of the advances, totalling ₦3,340,000.00, exceeded the ₦200,000 threshold, circumventing procurement rules. Also, seven advances totalling ₦3,133,000.00 were paid to two corporate entities, but no justification for the payments was provided.

On the issues of staff travel was the discovery ₦8,302,525.00 paid as Duty Tour Allowances for trips undertaken between 2018 and 2020. The payments were not supported by invitations or advertisements for the trips, while no trip reports were produced to support the expenditure. Financial Regulations 2009 paragraphs 415 and 603(1) require due economy in government expenditure and adequate supporting documentation for payments.

Another procurement-related finding concerned 40 cash advances totalling ₦10,061,381.25 granted to 13 officers between April 2018 and December 2020, exceeding exceeded the prescribed threshold and amounting to circumvention of procurement procedures. Treasury Circular TRY/A7&B7/2015 and Financial Regulations 2009 paragraphs 2302(ii) and 1420 cap procurement through cash advance at ₦200,000. The transactions also resulted in an estimated ₦1,106,751.94 in unremitted withholding tax, value-added tax and stamp duty.

Finally a 2019 contract for the construction of classrooms and offices valued at ₦26,008,000.00.

The audit found that the contract was awarded without a stated completion period, advertisement or technical and financial evaluation. It also found that no Bill of Quantities was available for the project.

Section 24(1) of the Public Procurement Act 2007 requires open competitive bidding for procurements.

The audit finding therefore identified the absence of open competitive bidding documentation and other required procurement records in the award of the N26,008,000.00 construction contract.

The audit further found that the contractor was paid ₦25,534,321.43, including ₦826,721.43 described as a retention fee.

According to the audit, the retention fee should have been withheld until the defects-liability period elapsed.

The risks identified were loss of government funds and payment for jobs not properly executed.

No management response was recorded.

Taken together, the nine findings cover payments and transactions involving millions of naira across the College’s finances, procurement, internally generated revenue, stores, cash advances, staff travel and capital projects.

The individual amounts identified in the audit are ₦2,374,700.00 for payments without paid vouchers; ₦52,998,000.00 for uninsured vehicles; ₦7,141,396.00 for paid vouchers without supporting documents; ₦29,268,077.47 in unremitted internally generated revenue; ₦2,170,600.00 for store purchases not taken on ledger charge; ₦6,338,350.00 in unretired cash advances; ₦8,302,525.00 in Duty Tour Allowance payments without supporting evidence; ₦10,061,381.25 in cash advances used to circumvent procurement procedures; and ₦26,008,000.00 for the irregularly awarded classroom and office construction contract.

The audit summary supplied to SecretsReporters states that the total amount flagged in the chapter was approximately ₦144,270,730.72. However, the nine individual figures listed in the findings total ₦144,663,029.72, leaving a difference of ₦392,299.00 between the stated chapter total and the sum of the individual findings.

The discrepancy has not been reconciled in the information supplied for this report.

The audit period covered January 2018 to December 2020, while the inspection that established the status of some of the transactions was conducted in May 2021.

The supplied records do not independently establish who served as substantive Provost of the College throughout the 2018–2020 audit period or who occupied the position of Director of Finance/Bursar during the same period. The information identifies Mohammed Gwaram as Deputy Provost during the period, while recent College records identify Mr Oghenemaro Sunday Usikpedo as Acting Bursar. The current Provost identified in the supplied information is Dr Salisu Salisu.

For the nine findings examined in the audit information supplied to SecretsReporters, no management response was recorded.