The Senate has indicted the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority for the contracts scandal of N726 million and ordered the contractors involved to refund the federal government.
The indictment of Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority was sequel to investigation carried out by the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC), chaired by Senator Mathew Uhroghide. The committee had submitted its report to Senate for consideration.
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The Senate Panel investigation was hinged on the 2016 Auditor General report presented to the National Assembly for consideration.
The Senate at the plenary session upheld the recommendations of the committee which indicted the Ogun -Osun River Basin Development Authority.
Some of the query reads, “Audit observed that an overpayment was made to the contractor for the Construction of Water Supply at Agbado-Isoye to the tune of N110,933,994.56. It was revealed from the contract documents, status report and payment details that the contractor was paid the sum of N404,798,880.80 being 71.63% of the contract sum, whereas only 52% of work valued at N293,864,886.24 was actually done.
“The sum of N293,128,935.33 was the contract sum for the construction of the Small Earth Dam at Ilobi-Irinja in Egbado-South LGA, Ogun State. However, the contractor was paid a mobilization fee of N43,969,340.30 without mobilising to site.
“Audit observed that a mobilisation fee of 75% instead of 15% was paid to the contractor in respect of the contract of N95,795,442.23 for the construction of 5 No. 2.5HA Centre-pivot scheme at Igan/Igua, Yewa North LGA, Ogun State. Also, contingency and other provisions of N10,844,464.50 in the BOQ and non-provision of some items listed amounted to N5,650,000.00.
“There were un-priced provisions in the Bill amounting to N12,000,000.00 for which there was no evidence of approval for expenditure and the sum of N19,138,151.50 spent as contingency was without evidence. In addition, out of 2,750m HDPE pipes for installation only 2,000m were installed leaving a balance of 750m valued at N13,125,000.00.
“Audit revealed that the Authority paid the sum of N158,824,417.90 representing 30.5% of the contract sum to a contractor instead of N100,089,674.28 (19.21%) for an abandoned project,” the Senate said.
However, the agency was unable to defend the allegation nor present relevant documents to counter the issues raised by the Auditor General in its report.
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