Audit observed that contract for British Standards International (BSI) International Standards for Organization (ISO 27001) was awarded to a contractor on the 12th September 2013 at a contract sum of N250,000,000.00; without following due process. The scope of work was to develop, apply and train staff on BSI International Standards for Organizations (ISO 27001). Efforts to access the contract file for review proved abortive as the Head of Procurement Unit claimed that he was new in the Unit and that such file was not in his custody. Further examination revealed the following irregularities:
a. No evidence to show that due process was followed in the award of the contract as the following documents were not provided: advertisement in two (2) National dailies, bid documents/evidence of eligibility requirement and evaluation report by the Tenders Evaluation Committee.
b. 10% Withholding tax (WHT) of N25,000,000.00 was not deducted from the payment; and although N12,500,000.00 (5% WHT) was reflected in the computation, only N2,500,000.00 was deducted in actual sense. It therefore means that outstanding WHT not deducted on the contract was N22,500,000.00 (N25,000,000.00 – N2,500,000.00). Equally, there was no evidence of 5% VAT deduction of N12,500,000.00 on this transaction which was a loss of revenue to the government.
c. Apart from the payment voucher No. 2098 of 14th December 2016 for N30,094,000.00, being the balance due to the Consultant, the previous payment vouchers raised and paid in 2014 were not produced for audit examination. These infractions are management failure to comply with Due Process guidelines in the award of the Consultancy contract.