Contract was awarded for construction of a Health Centre under the Corporate Social Responsibility project of the Authority at Balanga/Biliri LGA, Gombe State at the contract sum of ₦20,830,638.00 (Twenty million, eight hundred and thirty thousand, six hundred and thirty-eight naira), vide award letter Ref. No.: HQ/GM/PROC/CON/C.11/14/149 of 20th March, 2014 with six (6) months completion period. An Interim/Final Payment Certificate No. 01 of 18th February, 2015 was issued by
Engineering and Technical Services Directorate of the Authority for the sum of ₦19,789,106.10 (Nineteen million, seven hundred and eighty-nine thousand, one hundred and six naira, ten kobo) as amount payable to the contractor. This was corroborated by the Audit Department’s project monitoring report dated 20th February, 2015 and a memo by the GM/Audit to the Managing Director, referenced HQ/GMA/IA/E&TS/380 of 16th March, 2015 which was approved by him (MD) on the
18th March, 2015; herewith, the full sum was paid to the contractor.
However, physical inspection of the proposed project site in the company of an officer from the Authority’s Corporate Social Responsibilities Department’s revealed that the construction of a Health Centre was never executed. The retention fee of ₦1,041,531.90 (One million, forty-one thousand, five hundred and thirty-one naira, ninety kobo) was also paid to the contractor on 20th August, 2015, vide Interim/Final Payment Certificate No. 02 on 19th June, 2015.
This contravenes provision of Financial Regulations 708 (2009) and other extant circulars which states that “On no account should payments be made for services/works not yet performed or for goods not yet supplied”.