Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
With no doubt on its mandate to regulate sustainable energy development in the country, the Energy Commission of Nigeria may have also taken up a new role in breaking fraud records evident in the purchase of office stamps for the commission.
This reckless act, which may have gone undetected for years SecretReporters learned, was uncovered in the 2018 Audit report of the commission which showed an outrageous sum of N289,200 (Two Hundred and Eighty-Nine Thousand, Two Hundred Naira) added by Professor Eli Jidere Bala led administration for the purchase of office stamp as one of its capital projects.
According to the office of the Auditor General of the Federation, in daylight inflation of the contract sum awarded for the purchase of the stamps, the Energy Commission of Nigerian (ECN) fully aware of a breach in procurement rules approved the award at the inflated amount.
Investigations revealed that the glaring contract inflation summing up to a total of N17,603,083 (Seventeen Million, Six Hundred and Three Thousand, Eighty-Three Naira) which included inflation of contracts for the supply of Solar Street Light, Solar Borehole, and a transformer, was spotted as a result of a huge difference between contract sum contained in the award of contracts by the commission and the contract value as indicated in the financial bid by the contractors, an intentional violation of laid down financial regulation perhaps to facilitate smooth diversion of Public funds for private and selfish use.
SecretReporter further learned that after several calls to the management of the commission on the issue, the Director-General of ECN Professor Eli Jidere Bala as required by law according to the audit report in 2018 have since failed to recover the excess amount of N17,603,083 (Seventeen Million, Six Hundred and Three Thousand, Eighty-Three Naira), which was to be remitted to the Federation Account with evidence of remittance forwarded to the Public Account Committee of the National Assembly.
