By Secrets Reporters
SecretsReporters had earlier exposed how NEPAD Nigeria failed to maintain proper accounting records for N12.13 billion in spending and denied auditors access to a further ₦3.47 billion in financial records during its 2023 financial year. This second report examines the agency’s contract and procurement failures, a pattern spanning eleven separate findings worth a combined ₦8.98 billion.
Under its head, Princess Gloria Akobundu, over ₦6.94 billion was awarded in direct contravention of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) guidelines. The BPP exists precisely to certify that major government contracts meet due process before award; a contract of this scale proceeding in direct contravention of BPP guidelines means the safeguard was not merely bypassed but knowingly overridden.
₦1,102,679,538.62 was paid for contracts with no evidence the underlying work was ever executed. ₦219,273,508.00 involved further irregularities in the award and payment of a separate contract. ₦178,600,000.00 in contracts were deliberately split to circumvent tender procedures. ₦167,223,144.00 was flagged as abuse of the procurement process by management itself, a finding implicating the agency’s own leadership. ₦95,773,508.00 was paid as an irregular mobilisation fee. ₦95,000,000.00 went to contractors which according the documents seen by us were found ineligible for the awards they received. ₦62,510,000.00 was paid for unsubstantiated training and empowerment work in Onitsha. ₦57,802,891.10 was misapplied outright. ₦47,500,000.00 involved an irregular grant payment. And ₦14,670,000.00 was awarded and paid without due process.
Princess Gloria Akobundu led NEPAD Nigeria throughout 2023, when every one of these procurement failures occurred. The finding that management itself abused the procurement process rather than a lower-level administrative lapse places direct responsibility on the agency’s leadership for the ₦167.22 million finding specifically, and raises the question of how far up the chain of command awareness of the larger ₦6.94 billion BPP contravention extended.
The laws broken here are central to Nigeria’s public procurement framework. The Public Procurement Act 2007 requires Bureau of Public Procurement clearance for contracts above the statutory threshold violated outright by ₦6.94 billion. The same Act prohibits splitting contracts to circumvent tender procedures violated by ₦178.6 million. Financial Regulations 2009 prohibit payment for contracts without evidence of execution violated by ₦1.1 billion. And the same regulations require verified contractor eligibility before any award violated by ₦95 million.
