Auditor General reports unremitted compensation of N3.62 billion to Power Training Institute – THIS AGE

The Office of the Auditor General of the Federation has reported at least N3.62 billion in financial irregularities at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), Abuja, including unremitted tender expenditure, questionable contract payments and expenditure without adequate supporting documents.

The findings are contained in the Auditor General’s 2024 annual report on non-compliance and cover transactions between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2023.

The nine quantified findings amount to approximately N3.62 billion, excluding observations for which no financial value was specified.

The largest discovery involved $2.77 billion generated from the sale of bidding documents and bidding fees, which auditors said were not remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as required by government regulations.

The report also states that there was no evidence to support deals purchasing transactions through Remita because the relevant documents were not provided for verification.

The auditors recommended that the Director General of NAPTIN be accountable to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly for the funds and recover and remit the amount to the Treasury.

Another N547.21 million was paid for various shop items in 11 transactions without proof of delivery or shop receipt vouchers showing that the goods were received and recorded in the institution’s shops register.

The auditors said the absence of the documents created a risk that payments could be made for goods not supplied and recommended liability and recovery.

The audit also questioned $196.59 million spent on three constituency projects involving transformers and solar street lights in Ogun, Lagos and Osun states.

The projects included N59.2 million for 500 kVA transformers in Ogun, N38.53 million for 40 solar street lights in Epe Federal Constituency, Lagos and N98.86 million for 500 kVA transformers in Ijebu Jesa, Osun.

According to the report, NAPTIN failed to provide evidence that contractors were eligible to execute projects under the Office of Public Procurement’s provisional registration process.

There was also no evidence of monitoring and certification by the Federal Ministry of Special Tasks and Intergovernmental Affairs or of the receipt of supplied items in the institute’s warehouses.

The auditors also questioned N29.65m in duty allowances, sitting allowances and honorariums charged to a constituency project account without proof of approval for transfer of funds between budget heads.

NAPTIN also underpaid N4.12 million VAT on 21 contracts worth N136.86 million. The estimated VAT was N10.26 million, but only N6.14 million was remitted.

Other findings included N24.4 million in unsupported administrative expenditure, N10.68 million for NEMSA certification and commissioning without supporting evidence, N17.34 million in emergency payments made without the required approvals and N22.45 million transferred for a youth and women training program without evidence that the program was conducted.

The auditors also said NAPTIN failed to provide key financial documents, including the trial balance, general ledger and remittance statements.

They said the missing documents limited the audit’s verification and weakened accountability, while management failed to respond to the findings, leaving the observations unresolved.

The auditor-general has recommended that the director-general account for outstanding matters before the public accounts committees and submit missing records for audit, warning of risks including revenue losses and loss of public funds.

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