Nigerian Senators have expressed outrage after the Office of Auditor-General of the Federation revealed that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources spent 116 million naira for the supply of pens, letter heads papers and toners in one year.
The findings of the Auditor General’s Office On Mismanagement Of Public Funds contained in its 2015 audit report was presented to the Senate Committee on Public Account on Thursday, December 10.
A breakdown of expenditure showed the disbursement of 14.5 million naira for the supply of Schneider biros, 46 million naira for letter head papers and 56 million naira for toners.
It was observed that the contract for the supply of Schneider biros worth 14.5 million naira was split into smaller packages of less than 5 million naira each, was awarded to four different companies in order to circumvent the permanent secretary’s approval threshold of 5 million naira.
In his response, the Permanent Secretary, justified the expenditure, insisting that no law was breached.
However, the Chairman of the Committee expressed dissatisfaction with the defence of the Perm. Sec and therefore directed his Committee Secretariat to document the money spent and asked for refund from the officers involved in the ministry.