A new audit report has indicted the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) of inflating contracts and paying N6.93 billion without relevant approvals.
The 2022 Auditor General of the Federation’s report on non-compliance/internal control weaknesses in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), submitted to the National Assembly, discovered that N11.65 billion was paid to a construction company on August 11, 2020, for the construction of the National Assembly Service Commission office complex with a completion period of 24 months.
The auditors discovered that an upward contract review of N6.93 billion, which constitutes more than 50 per cent of the initial contract sum, was awarded on November 29, 2023, without the necessary approvals.
The review was for the conversion of the roof garden to office space, it said.
Paragraph 2 of the Establishment Circular with Ref. no. SGF/OP/I/S.3/VIII/124, dated August 25 2009, states that all contracts which require variations are to be submitted to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPE) for review and issuance of necessary due process certificate of “no objection” to facilitate their approvals by the appropriate tenders board.
The report noted that no bill of quantity for the upward review was presented for audit examination and that the bill of quantity presented to the auditors for the first contract, amounting to N11.65 billion, was not priced.
According to the report, relevant procurement documents such as the Commission’s needs assessment leading to the award, newspaper advertisements, bidding process, contract agreement, bidders’ quotations and minutes of tender board’s meetings, Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval and Bureau of Public Procurement’s certificate of no objection were not presented for audit.
The report attributed the anomalies to weaknesses in the internal control system at the National Assembly Service Commission.
