Payments on IPC No.1 without Back up valuation N188,914,513.04 Interim Payment Certificate No. 1 of this project was made on 20th April, 2017 by Principal manager signature without name totaling N188,914,513.04. The payment on this IPC was effected vide PV No. 60497/2017 of 5/5/2017 totaling ₦188,914,513.04 without valuation back up in line with the provision of procurement Act.
Worse still, as at 20/4/2017 when interim payment certificate No 1 was forwarded to Director PMS, the award was not yet harmonized before payment was effected.
The said memo dated 20/4/2017 also claimed that the process of IPC No.1 for payment was based on the report submitted by Rivers state office comprising consultant report, Bill of lading, SON-CAP Certificate all aforementioned document are not attached to the file nor the payment voucher. In summary, this job was not executed.

Risks
Loss of Government Fund: Funds was released in payment for services and the performance of which is not authenticated. Therefore, capable of causing unnecessary loss of funds to government.
Risk of Internal control failure: Checks were meant to be carried out to ensure internal control processes are adhered to. Controls measure put in place by management seems to be inadequate and ineffective.

Recommendations
(i) The management should furnish the Office of the Auditor-General for Federation with the back-up valuation in respect of the above interim payment certificate and aforementioned valuation certificate for audit scrutiny.
(ii) The sum of N188,914,513,04 paid for works not executed should be recovered from the contractor in the first instance, failing which the amount should be recovered from the Director PMS whose directorate was responsible for the preparation of the valuation certificate and interim payment certificate for this contractor to be paid.
(iii) Evidence of the recovery should be forwarded to the Office of the Auditor-General for Federation for verification.