The case of 52 unjustified contracts is part of the three clusters of transactions the auditor general flagged in CCT’s records for the 2024 financial year.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) cannot account for 52 contracts awarded as far back as 2023, according to the latest report of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) on the federal institutions’ finances.
The case is part of the three clusters of transactions the auditor general flagged in CCT’s records for the 2024 financial year. Two other issues relate to N46.86 million payments made by the CCT without prepayment audit and the total of N9.38 million paid without relevant supporting documents.
These queried transactions summed up to N108.46 million, which the auditor general’s office said the CCT has yet to satisfactorily account for.
On 17 July, the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) Shaakaa Chira submitted the report, covering the finances of federal institutions for 2024, to the National Assembly as mandated by the Nigerian constitution.
The document is titled the Auditor General of the Federation’s Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for 2024.
Volume II of the report dedicates a section to judiciary institutions, under which it presented its findings on the failures in the expenditures of the CCT, Nigeria’s foremost anti-corruption court concerned with cases of ethical and assets declaration breaches brought against public officers suspected to have violated the code of conduct stipulated in the nation’s constitution.
Although the report covered 2024 expenditures of the CCT and other federal institutions, the tribunal’s 52 contracts examined in the document were awarded in 2023 when the immediate past chairman Danladi Umar was heading the tribuna.
Mr Umar, who chaired the tribunal for 13 years, from 2011 to 2024, was succeeded by Mainasara Kogo in July 2024.
But the audit report did not specify under whose leadership payments were made for the flagged 52 contracts.
Also, the nature of the contracts was not disclosed in the report. It is unclear if the omission was a result of CCT’s failure to provide necessary records or the auditor general’s decision to leave out the information.
However, the audit report said there was no evidence that the tribunal transmitted the procurement documents regarding the 52 contracts it awarded in 2023 to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), as required by Section 16(13) of the Public Procurement Act 2007.
The provision requires procuring entities to send copies of their procurement records to the BPP within three months after the end of the financial year.
It states, “Copies of all procurement records shall be transmitted to the Bureau not later than 3 months after the end of the financial year and shall show:
“(a) information identifying the procuring entity and the contractors;
“(b) the date of the contract award, and
“(c) the value of the contract, and (d) the detailed records of the procurement proceeding.”
But as of July when the auditor-general submitted its report to the National Assembly, the CCT had yet to submit the relevant records concerning the 52 contracts.
“There was no evidence of transmitting procurement documents to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) who is the statutory body to validate and authenticate due process adhered to during contracts pre-qualification process, and awards concluded,” the auditor general’s report read.
It attributed the “anomalies” to “weaknesses in the internal control system at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Abuja.”
The report, which is Nigeria’s most sweeping audit examination of public institutions’ finances, also stated that the systemic failure poses risks of loss of public funds and the award of contracts to ineligible contractors.
The OAuGF received CCT’s explanation for its failure to provide the BBP with the necessary procurement records but treated it as an unsatisfactory excuse.
According to the auditor-general, the CCT management had blamed the failure on the officer responsible for preparing and transmitting the procurement records.
“The management regrets the action of the scheduled officer,” the management of the CCT said in its response cited in the audit report, adding that the new officer would comply with the requirement in future.
Rejecting the excuse, however, the audit report tagged it “unsatisfactory” and maintained that its findings remained valid until the recommended actions were implemented.
The report recommended that the CCT chairman be compelled to account for the N52.2 million expended on the 52 contracts to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly.
It also recommended that the money should be recovered and remitted to the treasury, with evidence of the remittance forwarded to the committees. This recommendation did not indicate if the money should still be recovered if the CCT is able to account for its use.
However, it further recommended sanctions for gross misconduct if the tribunal failed to comply.
The audit also found that the tribunal paid 29 vouchers worth N46,862,450 without the required prepayment audit.
The report said the vouchers and their supporting documents were not checked by the CCT’s Internal Audit Department before payment.
